| New campaign urges public to take action to counter infection
The Health Promotion Agency
for Northern Ireland (HPA) today launched a campaign urging
everyone to
take action to help protect their own health. The new public
information campaign promotes two major messages – ‘don’t
use antibiotics when you don’t need them’ and ‘wash
your hands regularly’.
The campaign incorporates two television
advertisements which are supported by posters and information
leaflets.
The key messages, Protect antibiotics so they can protect
you and Help prevent infection - wash your hands
regularly represent the first phase of the public information work
commissioned through the Department of Health, Social Services
and Public Safety’s Antimicrobial Resistance Action
Plan (AMRAP).
This
action plan aims to combat the continuing overuse of antibiotics
which has led to them becoming less effective
at fighting infections. Antibiotics can be life-saving in
serious infections caused by bacteria, such as kidney infections,
pneumonia, meningitis and blood poisoning. They do not fight
viral infections such as the symptoms of common coughs, colds
or flu, despite many people using them for this purpose.
Neither are they beneficial in most cases of sore throat,
sore ear or sinusitis.
Speaking during the launch Dr Hugh Webb,
Chairman of the Regional AMRAP Steering Committee, said: “We
need to encourage the careful use of antibiotics so they
can remain
as powerful as possible. Antibiotics are becoming less effective
at fighting infections because bacteria can adapt and find
ways to survive the action of an antibiotic. The more antibiotics
that are consumed in the population, the less effective they
become as the disease-causing bacteria build up resistance
against them. By taking antibiotics only when necessary,
we can help ensure they remain effective.”
Running alongside the message of limiting
the use of antibiotics is the message promoting the importance
of clean hands. Dr
Webb said: “We cannot underestimate the power of the
relationship between hand washing and infection control.
Research has shown that clean hands can reduce the risk of
spreading germs by around 45%. We regularly encounter disease-causing
germs and they are spread when our unwashed hands pass them
on by direct personal contact, or by contaminating our environment.
Germs spread this way can cause illnesses like diarrhoea
and vomiting, food poisoning, colds and sometimes life-threatening
diseases like meningitis and hepatitis. So the message is
plain and simple – soap and water can stop the spread
of disease.”
The campaign also stresses that how we wash our hands is
really important. Basically we should use soap and warm,
running water, taking care to wash all the surfaces thoroughly
including the wrists, palms, backs of hands, between fingers
and under fingernails. Rubbing hands together for up to 20
seconds, rinsing away all soap and then patting dry with
a clean paper or fabric towel to avoid chapping is the best
way to keep germs away.
The television advertising, which will support ongoing public
information in this area, commences today and posters and
leaflets will be available from the Central Health Promotion
Resource Service in each Health and Social Services Board
area, GP surgeries and pharmacies.
END
Notes to the editor
Research carried out by the HPA shows that when asked, 97% of GPs often
felt under pressure to prescribe antibiotics even when it was clinically inappropriate.
If a patient was refused an antibiotic, 74% of GPs reported that the patient
would have gone to another GP for an antibiotic. This illustrates the public’s
expectation that an antibiotic is a cure-all pill.
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