More than half of the population of the United Kingdom are aware that antibiotic resistance is a significant danger to public health, according to the results of a survey commissioned by the Patients' Association.
Of 1,012 people who responded to the survey, one in 10 said that they avoided taking antibiotics whenever possible. Almost 70 per cent agreed that courses of antibiotics should always be finished and said that they always made sure that they did this. Some respondents (12 per cent) agreed that courses should be finished but said that they did not always do so and 3 per cent thought it was not always best to finish a prescribed course of antibiotics. Of those interviewed, younger people (those in their late teens and early 20s) were, as a group, more likely to report not always finishing courses of antibiotics.
The association comments that most members of the public have responsible attitudes towards the use of antibiotics. In a press release issued on November 20, Mr Mike Stone (director, Patients' Association) said: "It would be victim blaming to attribute poor prescribing to patients and unfair to suggest that general practitioners have somehow been responsible for inadequate systems and policies across the NHS. "