It’s possible your customers will want to get antibiotics prescribed from their GP to treat flu. There is a real lack of understanding surrounding antibiotic resistance and what it means to the public.

It’s important that you understand the key facts about inappropriate use of antibiotics that you can pass on to your customers:

• Antibiotics will not work if you have a common cold or flu as both are viral infections – they should only be prescribed for bacterial infections such as some pneumonias, meningitis and sepsis infections.
• Healthy people can be supported to manage flu symptoms without seeing a GP therefore posing a perfect opportunity for pharmacy to recommend products available over the counter to help manage the symptoms
• Taking antibiotics will actually kill the “good” bacteria which protect the body, making you more susceptible to infection.
• GPs won’t prescribe antibiotics for flu because they won’t relieve the symptoms or help to speed up recovery

If you want to learn more about antibiotic resistance you can complete the Counter Excellence Keeping Antibiotics Working  https://learning.numarknet.com/counter-excellence/keeping-antibiotics-working training module