Successful annual antibiotic amnesty

Battling the bugs

The Health Protection Research Unit in HCAIs and AMR returned last week to host the annual antibiotic amnesty at two College campuses

Members of the HPRU team successfully signed up a 325 Antibiotic Guardians to the Public Health England website and engaged members of the College community with our unique game “Battling the Bugs: the antibiotics arms race”  that demonstrated how effective of not so effective antibiotics are in the battle against bacteria. Students and staff relished blasting the bugs with nerf gun ‘penicillin’ pellets and were able to upgrade their arsenal with alternative antibiotics to fight the ever resistant superbugs.

Our researchers also encouraged the College community to surrender their unused antibiotics languishing in their medicine cupboards. This year we received a range of antibiotics including co-amoxiclav; tyrothricin, methenamine, rifampicin, ciprofloxacin, flucloxacillin and clarithromycin that were surrendered by colleagues at the College.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the HPRU has run this initiative to coincide with World Antibiotic Awareness Week.

Everyone who signed up to become an Antibiotic Guardian were entered into the Prize Draw to win £100 Amazon vouchers. The winner will be announced before Christmas.