Treat Yourself Better without Antibiotics' campaign launches

A new health campaign urges people to self-treat minor winter ailments, as research exposes nearly half the UK adult population still think antibiotics can treat cold and flu.

New research has uncovered a distinct lack of awareness around the appropriate use of antibiotics for winter ailments like cold and flu, with almost half the population (45%) believing these can treat symptoms and slightly more (48%) admitting to visiting their GP with an expectation of being prescribed them.

Treat Yourself Better without Antibiotics is a new campaign from Pharmacy Voice and the PAGB which aims to educate people on normal symptom duration and provide advice on self-treatment with pharmacy support, in order to help people avoid unnecessary visits to their GP surgery, which costs the NHS £35.2 million a year and countless practice hours.

The reasons for these often unnecessary GP visits is largely down to people not knowing that antibiotics are not an effective treatment for colds and flu, but also because they don’t understand how long their symptoms should last  -  two in five people see a GP for cold symptoms significantly too early.

To understand better the symptom duration of cold and flu a new informative website, www.treatyourselfbetter.co.uk, has been developed that features a symptom checker and warning signs support material, to help people understand how long symptoms could last for and when it is appropriate to get medical help.

Supported by a wide range of public health organisations including the Department of Health and Public Health England through European Antibiotic Awareness Day, the Treat Yourself Better without Antibiotics campaign urges people to better self-treat winter ailments such as coughs and colds rather than going to the GP and asking for antibiotics. www.treatyourselfbetter.co.uk