Announcement: Get Smart About Antibiotics Week --- November 15--21, 2010

Announcement: Get Smart About Antibiotics Week --- November 15--21, 2010
Weekly
November 12, 2010 / 59(44);1455


November 15--21, 2010, is the third annual Get Smart About Antibiotics Week. This week focuses attention on the need to reduce antibiotic resistance by improving antibiotic use. Antibiotics are one of the most important tools available to combat life-threatening bacterial diseases. However, increasing antibiotic resistance is compromising the effectiveness of antibiotics. In recognition of this as a global public health issue, Get Smart About Antibiotics Week will coincide with Antibiotic Awareness Day, November 18, 2010, in the European Union and Canada.

CDC's Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work and Get Smart for Healthcare programs are designed to educate consumers and health-care providers about appropriate use of antibiotics. Infections with resistant bacteria have become more common in health-care and community settings, and many bacteria have become resistant to multiple antibiotics. As resistance increases, so does a patient's risk for dying from the infection (1).

Patients, health-care providers, hospital administrators, and policy makers must work together to apply effective strategies for improving antibiotic use to improve health, save lives, and reduce health-care expenditures. Information regarding appropriate use of antibiotics and about Get Smart About Antibiotics Week and how to participate is available at http://www.cdc.gov/getsmart.

Reference
Frieden TR. Antibiotic Resistance and the Threat to Public Health. Testimony Before the Subcomm. on Health of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, 111th Congress, 2nd Sess. (Apr. 28, 2010). Available at http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2010/04/t20100428b.html. Accessed November 4, 2010.

full-text:
Announcement: Get Smart About Antibiotics Week --- November 15--21, 2010