Understand Antibiotic Resistance as a Serious Global Health Threat

The misuse of antibiotics worldwide has eroded their efficacy and antibiotic-resistant bacteria rapidly emerge and spread across the globe. At the same time, the pipeline of new antibiotics is now almost dry. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that we have arrived at a point where the pandemic of antibiotic resistance has become a global health crisis. It is a silent tsunami that, without a sound, roars over the world and crumbles down the pillars upon which modern medicine is built. More than anything, this situation requires immediate action and we all need to share the responsibility for preserving antibiotics for current and future generations.

The free online course “Antibiotic Resistance: The Silent Tsunami” will help you to understand antibiotic resistance and what actions are needed to address this increasingly serious global health threat.

Requirements

This course is suitable for members of the public, students, health professionals or any other experts who want to gain a broader understanding of antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotic Resistance: The Silent Tsunami Course Content

This course introduces the concepts of antibiotic resistance and what actions are needed to meet this global health threat. The course includes the following topics:

The mechanisms behind the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria;
Real-life stories told by patients, doctors, and other experts;
The challenges we are facing, and the preventative actions and other control mechanisms we can implement to limit the impact of antibiotic resistance on our society;
The modest development of new antibiotics;
The urgent need for innovation in the field;
How to simultaneously address the access to and the excessive use of antibiotics in low- and middle-income countries.

This course will give you the tools to understand how antibiotic resistance unfolds, and how it can best be managed, controlled and prevented at both the societal and individual level.