Antibiotic reduction can be achieved through low cost information campaigns

A local low-cost information campaign mainly targeted at citizens and involving doctors and pharmacists can significantly decrease total antibiotic prescribing, finds a paper published today on bmj.com. The excessive use of antibiotics is associated with resistance to these drugs and an increasing threat to global health. Antibiotics are also often unnecessarily and inappropriately prescribed. This is an issue that has been frequently addressed by health information campaigns.