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As Heard on Morning Line: Antibiotic Awareness

World Health Organization WHO

Our Community guests this morning were CJ Kim and Kimberly Spink from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, Epidemiology Division, to spread the word about Antibiotics Awareness Week. 

According to our guests, antibiotics are a wonderful tool used by the medical community to treat bacterial infection, however overprescription and overuse can lead to antibiotic resistant strains of disease and other problems. 

Kim says the natural reaction of the organisms is try to survive, and this includes the bacterial microorganisms that cause disease. Therefore, if they aren't completely eliminated by a course of antibiotics, the ones that do survive adapt in a sort of microbial counterdefense effort.  This is one reason medical staff always caution patients to finish all their medications, even if the patient feels better halfway through. 

The World Health Organization recognizes this problem on a global scale - so much so they have developed a game: Antibiotics - HANDLE WITH CARE

Credit World Health Organization
After answering a question correctly in the "Experience" you get to play a game fighting bacteria.

For more information about the World Health Organization's World Antibiotic Awareness Week, check out their website: http://www.who.int/campaigns/world-antibiotic-awareness-week/en/ 

For general information about the  Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Division of Public Health, Epidemiology Section, check out their website: http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/Pages/default.aspx

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