TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘Antibiotic footprint’ as a communication tool to aid reduction of antibiotic consumption
AU - Limmathurotsakul, Direk
AU - Sandoe, Jonathan A.T.
AU - Barrett, David C.
AU - Corley, Michael
AU - Hsu, Li Yang
AU - Mendelson, Marc
AU - Collignon, Peter
AU - Laxminarayan, Ramanan
AU - Peacock, Sharon J.
AU - Howard, Philip
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2019/8/1
Y1 - 2019/8/1
N2 - ‘Superbugs’, bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics, have been in numerous media headlines, raising awareness of antibiotic resistance and leading to multiple action plans from policymakers worldwide. However, many commonly used terms, such as ‘the war against superbugs’, risk misleading people to request ‘new’ or ‘stronger’ antibiotics from their doctors, veterinary surgeons or pharmacists, rather than addressing a fundamental issue: the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals. Simple measures of antibiotic consumption are needed for mass communication. In this article, we describe the concept of the ‘antibiotic footprint’ as a tool to communicate to the public the magnitude of antibiotic use in humans, animals and industry, and how it could support the reduction of overuse and misuse of antibiotics worldwide. We propose that people need to make appropriate changes in behaviour that reduce their direct and indirect consumption of antibiotics.
AB - ‘Superbugs’, bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics, have been in numerous media headlines, raising awareness of antibiotic resistance and leading to multiple action plans from policymakers worldwide. However, many commonly used terms, such as ‘the war against superbugs’, risk misleading people to request ‘new’ or ‘stronger’ antibiotics from their doctors, veterinary surgeons or pharmacists, rather than addressing a fundamental issue: the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals. Simple measures of antibiotic consumption are needed for mass communication. In this article, we describe the concept of the ‘antibiotic footprint’ as a tool to communicate to the public the magnitude of antibiotic use in humans, animals and industry, and how it could support the reduction of overuse and misuse of antibiotics worldwide. We propose that people need to make appropriate changes in behaviour that reduce their direct and indirect consumption of antibiotics.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85070119255&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/jac/dkz185
DO - 10.1093/jac/dkz185
M3 - Article
SN - 0305-7453
VL - 74
SP - 2122
EP - 2127
JO - Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
JF - Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
IS - 8
ER -