What Can We Do?
Increasing rates of antibiotic resistance removes important medications from our healthcare system, decreasing treatment options, and putting another strain on researchers to quickly find new solutions.
As a hospital director
If I were a hospital director, I would ensure all doctors under my leadership followed strict guidelines when prescribing antibiotics, so they would only prescribe them to those who truly need this treatment. This way, the resistant bacteria has less opportunities to multiply. I would also ask doctors to give very clear instructions to the patients about taking antibiotics, and emphasize the dangers, so there is less room for misuse. By doing this the bacteria would reproduce less often, assuming there are less gaps in treatment.
As a healthcare official
As a healthcare official, I would put similar messages out on a larger scale to the population, but would also put funding into detection of antimicrobial resistance, so it can be caught more quickly, increase reporting of how and when antibiotics are used, increase infection control policies in the healthcare system and in public policy, and increase funding of antibiotic research. With more data, we can more accurately respond to this crisis, help contain bacterial infections through work and healthcare policy, and find a wider variety of treatments.