{"id":11447,"date":"2023-02-07T16:38:19","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T16:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/antimicrobial-resistance-amr\/"},"modified":"2023-02-07T16:38:19","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T16:38:19","slug":"antimicrobial-resistance-amr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/antimicrobial-resistance-amr\/","title":{"rendered":"Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taking antibiotics when you don\u2019t need them can encourage harmful bacteria that live inside you to become resistant. That means antibiotics may not work when you need them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)<\/h2>\n

AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines. This makes infections harder to treat and increases the risk of disease spreading, severe illness and death.<\/p>\n

Antimicrobial medicines are used to prevent and treat infections.<\/p>\n

Types of antimicrobial medicines include:
\u2014 antibiotics
\u2014 antivirals
\u2014 antifungals
\u2014 antiparasitics<\/p>\n

Antibiotics<\/a>\u00a0are a type of medicine used for treating bacterial infections. They should not be used to treat viruses. Antivirals may be prescribed to treat some viruses, for example\u00a0shingles<\/a>\u00a0or the\u00a0flu<\/a>, in certain circumstances.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When antibiotics are needed<\/h2>\n

Antibiotics are needed for serious bacterial infections including:
\u2014 sepsis<\/a>
\u2014 pneumonia<\/a>
\u2014 sexual transmitted diseases<\/a>\u00a0like\u00a0gonorrhoea<\/a>
\u2014 meningococcal\u00a0meningitis<\/a><\/p>\n

For some people with a\u00a0urinary tract infection (UTI)<\/a>,\u00a0impetigo<\/a>\u00a0and certain skin infections, it might be possible for you to be treated safely and effectively with antibiotics\u00a0in your community pharmacy<\/a>\u00a0without having to contact your GP.<\/p>\n

Antibiotics also decrease the risks of some medical or surgical treatments, including:
\u2014 caesarean section (C-section)<\/a>
\u2014 hip replacement<\/a>
\u2014 types of chemotherapy<\/p>\n

If AMR continues to develop and medicines are less effective in treating infections, these procedures would then have a higher risk of infection-related complications.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Helping to reduce AMR<\/h2>\n

Everyone can work together to help reduce the risk of AMR and ensure that antimicrobial medicines continue to be effective in the future. You can help by:<\/p>\n

\u2014 only using antibiotics when recommended by a healthcare professional
\u2014 following the expert advice of your healthcare professional
\u2014 completing your full course of medication when these are advised for you as not taking the full course of antibiotics can mean that bacteria get a chance to develop resistance
\u2014 never saving antibiotics for the future or to share with friends and family
\u2014 disposing of any unused medicines safely at your local pharmacy to protect the environment, never bin or flush<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking antibiotics when you don’t need them can encourage harmful bacteria that live inside you to become resistant. That means antibiotics may not work when you need them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/prescription-bag-AdobeStock_242986615-HHYRA6.jpeg",2048,1365,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/prescription-bag-AdobeStock_242986615-HHYRA6-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/prescription-bag-AdobeStock_242986615-HHYRA6-300x200.jpeg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/prescription-bag-AdobeStock_242986615-HHYRA6-768x512.jpeg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/prescription-bag-AdobeStock_242986615-HHYRA6-1024x683.jpeg",1024,683,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/prescription-bag-AdobeStock_242986615-HHYRA6-1536x1024.jpeg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/prescription-bag-AdobeStock_242986615-HHYRA6.jpeg",2048,1365,false],"mailpoet_newsletter_max":["https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/prescription-bag-AdobeStock_242986615-HHYRA6-1320x880.jpeg",1320,880,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/author\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Taking antibiotics when you don't need them can encourage harmful bacteria that live inside you to become resistant. That means antibiotics may not work when you need them.","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-05-05 04:48:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bruntonplacesurgery.scot.nhs.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}