280 make safe antibiotics pledge

National

THIS week is the World Antibiotics Awareness Week and the public is encouraged to pledge to stop the misuse of antibiotics to stop a potential threat to public health.
The PNG Anti-Macrobiotic Resistance Secretariat says 280 people have so far pledged to stop the misuse of antibiotics and hopes more will join the campaign.
“It’s important for people to pledge and help our country fight against antibiotic resistance bacteria because it is a threat to human health,” the secretariat’s Graham Wavimbukie said on Wednesday at an event at Kopkop College in Port Moresby to mark the World Antibiotics Awareness Week.
The team visited Kopkop College and Gordon Secondary School to carry out awareness on the misuse and abuse of antibiotics.
Wavimbukie said the team had set up a booth at Waigani Health Centre and an online site where people could log in to pledge.
The pledge reads: “I (name) pledge to only use antibiotics as prescribed to me by my healthcare provider and always complete the full course of medication; and use good hygiene practices to prevent the spread of germs and to limit the need for antibiotics.”
Wavimbukie said people in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, too, were pledging. He said the secretariat had been doing awareness on antibiotic resistance during the week and hoped to make people aware of the risks of antibiotics abuse.