Sixty-four per cent said antibiotic resistance is an issue
and 73 per cent said farmers should reduce their use of antibiotics.
“The rise of antibiotic resistance is a global health
crisis, and governments now recognize it as one of the greatest challenges for
public health today,” says Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health
Organization (WHO).
“It is reaching dangerously high levels in all parts of the
world,” she said. “Antibiotic resistance is compromising our ability to treat
infectious diseases and undermining many advances in medicine.”
The survey asked 14 questions on the use of antibiotics,
knowledge of antibiotics and of antibiotic resistance, and used a mix of online
and face-to-face interviews.
It was conducted in Barbados, China, Egypt, India,
Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, the Russian Federation, Serbia, South Africa, Sudan
and Viet Nam.
While not claiming to be exhaustive, this and other surveys
will help WHO and partners to determine the key gaps in public understanding of
the problem and misconceptions about how to use antibiotics to be addressed
through the campaign.
Some common misconceptions revealed by the survey include:
Three quarters (76 percent) of respondents think that
antibiotic resistance happens when the body becomes resistant to antibiotics.
In fact bacteria — not humans or animals — become resistant to antibiotics and
their spread causes hard-to-treat infections.
Two thirds (66 percent) of respondents believe that
individuals are not at risk of a drug-resistant infection if they personally
take their antibiotics as prescribed. Nearly half (44 percent) of people
surveyed think antibiotic resistance is only a problem for people who take
antibiotics regularly. In fact, anyone, of any age, in any country can get an
antibiotic-resistant infection.
More than half (57 percent) of respondents feel there is not
much they can do to stop antibiotic resistance, while nearly two thirds (64
percent) believe medical experts will solve the problem before it becomes too
serious.
The full report is available on the internet at http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/194460/1/9789241509817_eng.pdf?ua=1
.
