Tag Archives: Antibiotic stewardship (community)

Revisiting #SaveTheScript 2015 – short film meets AMS

In 2015 NPS MedicineWise partnered with Tropfest, to launch a short film competition to raise awareness about antibiotic resistance.  Here are our picks of the 15 finalists– definitely worth a revisit! First prize – “The Pick Up” of the not-so lovely Ms Gonorrhoea! “Antibiotic man”  “Pills“ The #savethescript judging panel included:  Dr Andrew Rochford, Seven Network Health Editor […]

Appropriate use of azithromycin

Azithromycin is a macrolide antibiotic with broad-spectrum bacteriostatic activity against many Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. It also has activity against Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Treponema pallidum, Chlamydia sp. and Mycobacterium avium complex. In addition azithromycin has immunomodulating effects and is used in chronic respiratory inflammatory diseases, including cystic fibrosis, as an anti-inflammatory.

Australia releases first National Strategy to address Antimicrobial Resistance

This week Health Minister, Susan Ley and Agriculture Minister, Barnaby Joyce released a statement regarding the publication of Australia’s first national strategy to address antimicrobial resistance. The strategy covers the next 4 years and aims to reduce Australia’s antimicrobial use to combat resistance.  It is based on the WHO Global Action Plan for AMR. The […]

Infectious diseases 101

Some personal thoughts : Know well important bacterial pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa  and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Know your antibiotics and again, know a lot about the few that you will commonly use. Aminoglycoside and vancomycin dosing and administration require particular focus – Therapeutic Guidelines: Antibiotic , […]

Delaying antibiotic prescribing strategies

There are several strategies than can be used when doctors are reluctant to issue antibiotic prescriptions. You can ask patients to get back in touch is they don’t improve, post-date prescriptions, ask patients to come back and collect the prescription if they aren’t feeling better, write the prescription and ask the patient to delay using […]

Do you really need to finish that antibiotic course?

Professor Lyn Gilbert started a discussion going with her recent MJA piece. Health and Wellbeing (ABC) took up the discussion with a further piece teasing out some of these issues-  Antibiotics – when is enough enough?  Full text below. The community discussion that followed on the ABC News Facebook page was very interesting and diverse! […]