Understanding media publics and the antimicrobial resistance crisis

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) imperils health for people across the world. This enormous challenge is being met with the rationalisation of prescription, dispensing and consumption of antimicrobials in clinical settings and in the everyday lives of members of the general population. Individuals need to be reached outside clinical settings to prepare them for the necessary changes to the pharmaceutical management of infections; efforts that depend on media and communications and, therefore, how the AMR message is mediated, received and applied. In 2016, the UK Review on Antimicrobial Resistance called on governments to support intense, worldwide media activity to promote public awareness and to further efforts to rationalise the use of antimicrobial pharmaceuticals. In this article, we consider this communications challenge in light of contemporary currents of thought on media publics, including: the tendency of health communications to cast experts and lay individuals in opposition; the blaming of individuals who appear to 'resist' expert advice; the challenges presented by negative stories of AMR and their circulation in public life, and; the problems of public trust tied to the construction and mediation of expert knowledge on the effective management of AMR.

Translating antimicrobial resistance: a case study of context and consequences of antibiotic-related communication in three northern Thai villages

“…Often framed as a form of "public engagement" (Howard et al, 2013;Roh et al, 2018;Allison et al, 2017), 1 AMR education and awareness activities involve presenting medical knowledge to the general public. This process of translating technical into popular language faces formidable challenges like sender-recipient dynamics, misunderstanding, attribution of blame to the "ignorant" public, and adverse and/or unforeseen public reactions with inequitable outcomes on healthcare utilisation (Davis et al, 2017;Lambert, 2016, paragraph 8;Peter and Koch, 2016;Carrion, 2018;Dawson, 2018).…”

Outputs, Outcomes, and Behavioural Impacts of an Antibiotic-Related Educational Activity in Lao PDR

“…The activity participants also exhibited fewer interpretations that conflict with the biomedical concept of drug resistance, like "patients being stubborn" (-3.5%), "being addicted to medicine" (-3.5%), or "medicines having side-effects" (-6.9%). 9 However, the fraction of interpretations relating directly to antibiotics and germs only increased marginally from 1.7% to 3.5% among the participants, and it decreased among indirectly exposed villagers at a higher than the unexposed group (from 5.3% to 1.0% vs. from 3.7% to 2.4%). Aside from an increase in the interpretation "due yah means lueng yah" (+24.0%), the indirectly exposed group also exhibited small changes in the themes "stubborn patients" (-6.3%) and "medicine side-effects" (+2.9%).Section a2 in Table 6 indicates that changes in the interpretation of lueng yah were less pronounced among all groups.…”

“…This knowledge deficit approach to population health behaviour is problematic for two main reasons [4,5]: First, it disregards other drivers of population health behaviour-for instance health system dysfunctions and inequities especially in low-and middle-income settings [1,6]-which could render awareness-raising activities ineffective. Second, health communication can have adverse and unforeseen consequences [7,8], and AMR awareness raising is no exception [9]. This can be seen for example in the stigmatisation of pig farmers in Denmark, where leaflets had begun advising that, "If you work on a pig farm, you should refrain from having sex with others or seeing anybody […]" [10] (p. 4).…”

“…Responses to the question, "What do you think is 'drug resistance? '"9 Side-effects refer here not to drug resistance but to medicine-related complications like dizziness, nausea, rashes, or allergic reactions.Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 9 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201809.0034.v2Peer-reviewed version available at Antibiotics 2018, 7, 95; doi:10.3390/antibiotics7040095…”

Avaliação de extratos de plantas quanto à atividade antimicrobiana e à detoxificação de micotoxinas

“…A pressão seletiva para genes que sejam resistentes aos princípios ativos empregados nos tratamentos é a principal razão para a resistência se espalhar na comunidade bacteriana (FERNANDES, 2006). Acredita-se que antimicrobianos usados em animais de companhia e na produção de alimentos possam levar à resistência antimicrobiana em humanos e outros animais (DAVIS et al, 2018).…”