Pharmacists receive patient requests for antibiotics for minor ailments such as colds at least once a day, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has said.<\/p>\n
The organisation, which represents 6,000 independent community pharmacies, told the PA news agency that workers receive demands for the drugs even if they are not needed, while some patients also stockpile them for holidays.<\/p>\n
The NPA has also received reports from pharmacists of half-used courses of antibiotics being posted on local social media groups.<\/p>\n
The organisation polled around 400 pharmacists and found 79% refuse requests for antibiotics from patients for minor things at least once a day.<\/p>\n
Ailments such as coughs and colds can often be viral infections which will clear up without the use of antibiotics.<\/p>\n
Some 77% of those surveyed also said they felt demand for antibiotics could pose a risk to patient safety owing to the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).<\/p>\n
This is when microbes that cause infections evolve in such a way that antibiotics no longer work or are much less effective.<\/p>\n
Over-use of antibiotics is the main driver in the development of drug-resistant pathogens.<\/p>\n
A quarter of pharmacists surveyed said patients frequently return partially used antibiotics, while 37% were aware of patients regularly hoarding antibiotics for a later date.<\/p>\n
Other issues included patients requesting antibiotics from their pharmacy before going on holiday just in case of illness, and people returning from abroad with significant quantities of antibiotics for conditions that would not normally be treated by them in the UK.<\/p>\n
The NPA is now joining the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to support its campaign on antibiotics.<\/p>\n
The UKHSA awareness campaign features \u2018Andi Biotic\u2019 \u2013 a cartoon character designed to increase awareness of AMR.<\/p>\n
Olivier Picard, chairman of the National Pharmacy Association, said: \u201cThese are concerning findings and shows there are widespread misconceptions about the role that antibiotics can play among some patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough antibiotics may be an appropriate course of treatment for some conditions, for other ailments like viral coughs and sore throats, they may not be effective.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could also mean antibiotics may not be effective for treating more serious conditions, posing a risk to patient safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cPharmacists are highly trained medical professionals who see nearly two million patients a day and provide medication advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can supply antimicrobials in some circumstances, but only when they are clinically needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diane Ashiru-Oredope, lead pharmacist for antimicrobial resistance at the UKHSA, said:\u00a0\u201cAddressing misconceptions about taking antibiotics is an important part of tackling antibiotic resistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cAntibiotic resistance is impacting people every day in this country.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot being able to effectively prevent and treat infections is one of the biggest threats to our health.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation is not hopeless though, we can all work together to help keep antibiotics working.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, only taking them when prescribed and as directed by a healthcare professional, not taking antibiotics for colds and flu and not saving antibiotics for future use \u2013 unused antibiotics can be returned to pharmacies.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking action not only protects our own individual\u00a0health \u2013 it also protects everyone in our communities and future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said AMR represents \u201cone of the most significant threats to public health, with potentially devastating consequences if we don\u2019t act now.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur pharmacists, along with other healthcare professionals, play a crucial and we\u2019re grateful for their vigilance in ensuring these vital medicines are only provided when clinically appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pharmacists receive patient requests for antibiotics for minor ailments such as colds at least once a day, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[25854,105,4326,38854,38857,7398,16,15,38855,38856],"class_list":{"0":"post-79673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-antibiotics","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-medication","11":"tag-national-pharmacy-association","12":"tag-npa","13":"tag-pharmacists","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-use-of-antibiotics","17":"tag-viral-infections"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114462000644504327","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}