New NICE guidance could help pharmacy teams to fight antibiotic resistance by encouraging the public to change their behaviour. Charlotte Rixon reports

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a new draft guidance which aims to tackle antimicrobial resistance through the promotion of behavioural change. Infectious diseases are the biggest cause of death and disease worldwide, and a major cause of mortality in infants, the elderly and people with long-term conditions in the UK. Each year, infections account for around 3.4 million hospital bed days in England (eight per cent of the total), and about 27 million lost working days across the UK (21 per cent of the total).

Slowing down resistance

Over the last three decades, microbial organisms that cause bacterial infections have become increasingly resistant to antibiotics, while very few new antibiotics have been developed. To slow down the rate of antimicrobial resistance, it is therefore vital that existing antibiotics are prescribed and used appropriately. The draft NICE guidance includes steps that healthcare professionals, including community pharmacy teams, can take to help reduce inappropriate demand for antibiotics, such as raising awareness of the typical duration of cold and flu symptoms and providing information about how to self-manage them.

Professor Gillian Leng, NICE deputy chief executive and health and social care director, said: “The overuse of antibiotics in the last 30 years has led to microbial resistance, and with so few new antibiotics being developed, this could result in once-treatable infections becoming fatal in years to come.”

Advice and reassurance

NICE stresses the need to raise the profile of community pharmacy as the “first port of call” for advice on self-limiting conditions, and is calling for national and local campaigns to highlight the importance of good hand hygiene in preventing the spread of infections. The document has been welcomed by the Proprietary Association of Great Britain (PAGB), which has long been campaigning for greater awareness of antibiotic overuse.