Celebration of Antibiotic Awareness Week 2016

• Antibiotic is considered as the “Miracle Drug” of 20^th Century has been playing a very crucial role in curing some deathly infections and have been transforming the life of many since the day it was discovered.  Along with vaccines, they have transformed death in infancy and childhood from an ever-present danger into a rare event. But there has been such misuse of this miracle drug in these past few decades that today most of the antibiotics have lost their effectiveness against various infections. A part of global effort to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics, the Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership (GARP) – Nepal in collaboration with Nepal Medical Students Society /Institute of Medicine, Physician for Social Responsibility Nepal (PSRN) Student Chapter BPKIHS, Oxford University Clinical Research Unit Nepal (OUCRU-NP)/Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel Hospital, Nepalgunj Medical College and Manipal Medical College organized different activities to celebrate  Antibiotic Awareness Week 2016 which was geared towards educating and informing the general public, health professionals and students regarding the use, misuse and resistance of Antibiotic in this present era. The theme of the second Antibiotic Awareness Week 2016 was “Handle – Antibiotics with Care” as given by World Health Organization. GARP-Nepal’s catchphrase for this year was “AMR: Access vs Excess” which was used in Essay Competition as well as Poster Competition.

Events for celebration of World Antibiotic Awareness Week 2016 in Nepal

• With an aim to aware general public about the sensitivity of the issue, rallies were conducted in different parts of the country: Dhulikhel on 16^th November whereas Dharan and Patan Area on 19^th November.
• Essay competition on the topic “AMR: Access vs Excess” among the medical students was organized in PAHS on 16^th November, BPKIHS on 18^th November and Kathmandu University (KU) on 20^th November.
• Poster presentation competition was conducted in BPKIHS on 16^th November and on PAHS throughout the week.
• Awareness corners were set up at KU on 16^th-17^th November. Similarly, patient information corner were setup at OPD waiting space of BPKIHS. These types of awareness corner were also setup in  Teaching Hospital, Om hospital,Manipal Hospital, Nepalgunj,  five Bhatbhateni Supermarket of  Kathmandu and Pokhara for an entire week, where information were collected through semi structured questionnaire regarding knowledge and awareness of antibiotic use and resistance among general public
• A general discussion among students and doctors regarding antibiotic use and misuse was held at PAHS on 18^th November.
• Various posters and pamphlets designed by GARP- Nepal and students of IOM and KU  were made available to the general public with an intention to make them aware about the use and resistance of Antibiotic.
• The materials produced for the World Antibiotic Awareness Week, 2016 were distributed among general public and medical shops in different events.