Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a big threat worldwide. The key solution is to follow the strategic guidelines proposed in National Action plan. The first strategic objective is to ‘Improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance’ through communication, IEC resources and education & training. Here, the target audience corresponds to all the stakeholders, including policy makers, general public, healthcare professionals and farmers. Thus, it seems that public awareness is vital to enhance the enthusiasm and support and mobilize the knowledge through various resources. There are many ways through which it can be done. One such way is the use of ‘Newsletter’.
A newsletter is communication tool used for sharing relevant and valuable information with a wide range of network, especially subscribers. Nowadays, newsletters are shared via email, giving direct access to the audience’s inbox so that they do not miss out on the important updates. On similar lines, PREVENT IT project, cofunded by ERASMUS plus, has come up with its fifth version of newsletter (Sep, 2021). The key aim of the project is to create a future wherein every individual has a right knowledge on how to combat ABR. The September issue includes four different aspects viz.
- cost associated with antimicrobial resistance: price to pay;
- good nutrition: immunity boosters and curbing infections;
- potential role of media in combating antimicrobial resistance;
- achievements of PREVENT IT project.
Let us have a glimpse of what is being discussed in each section.
Article 1 revolves around the negative impact of AMR on the pocket of an individual. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), antibiotic resistance could add about $1,400 in treatment of patients with any bacterial infections in the United States alone. The article enlists the various factors directly and indirectly contributing towards the expenditure and financial loss due to AMR. The reasons included in the article are based on a systematic review conducted by Wozniak et al. (2019) aimed to measure the quality of methods used in studies to quantify the costs of AMR. The available literature also confirms the distribution of antibiotic resistant infections in animals as well, thus, the concept of ‘One Health’ cannot be ignored. In the end it has been proposed that taking a few basic steps by the public can really help to lower the incidence of infection/s directly impacting the consumption of antibiotics and thus decreasing out of pocket expenditure.
The second article talks about the importance and role of nutrition in preventing the infections, thus leading to the prudent use of antibiotics directly.
The third article focuses on the role of media in creating awareness on AMR falling on a similar lines of the current article. It emphasizes that more research is needed to better understand how media communicates about this topic, as well as how media influences attitude and behavior change in different geographical regions. However, it was highlighted that one must not ignore the fact of the ease of cultivating misinformation online.
The last section of the newsletter describes the achievements of the PREVENT IT project itself. Please visit our website to join us in the fight against AMR!!!
To learn more, please click here.
