The ministries of Health and Education, Universities, Culture and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands collaborate in the celebration of the conference called ‘The health professions united against resistance to antibiotics’, an initiative organized by the Official College of Pharmacists of Santa Cruz de Tenerife which aims to raise awareness in the educational community of the islands about the rational use of antibiotics.
Currently, the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria constitutes one of the most serious threats to public health; multi-resistant bacteria cause 33,000 deaths a year in Europe and generate an additional health cost of around 1,500 million euros.
The excessive and inappropriate use of antibiotics is one of the main causes of this problem for which we all have part of the responsibility. The solution is also in everyone’s hands.
Aimed at students in the first and second years of the Baccalaureate and the Vocational Training Health branch, this meeting, developed online, took place this week.
After the initial presentation, the conference started with a presentation by a professional from the world of animal health, a specialist in Veterinary Medicine, who explained how resistant bacteria in animals can reach humans, a situation that can also happen in the environment.
Next, a medical specialist informed the participants of the importance of antibiotics in medical processes, not only in the treatment of infections, and the large number of deaths that could result from them if they were not available.
The sessions continued with the talks ‘Prevention of infections in the hospital setting and surveillance of multi-resistant infections. Hand hygiene’, by a Nursing professional, and ‘Aren’t there new antibiotics? Importance of the correct prescription. PROA’ teams, by a Pharmacy professional.
Finally, a debate was held in which all the people involved and the students attending the presentations participated.
