Creating Awareness on Antibiotics Use at IMU Clinical School, Seremban

16 – 22 November 2015 – In conjunction with World Antibiotic Awareness Week, the School of Medicine and The Hippocrates Club organised an Antibiotic Awareness Week at the IMU Clinical School in Seremban. This event was organised with the aim of raising awareness on antibiotic resistance and antibiotic stewardship among healthcare workers, medical students and the public as well as improving awareness and understanding on antibiotics resistance among medical students. The theme of this event was “Take a Pledge, Be an Antibiotic Guardian”. Many activities were organised during this Week. These include talks, daily quizzes, T-shirt sales and poster exhibition. For the poster exhibition, there were 22 posters displayed at the Ground Floor of the Clinical School. The posters covered information on the 11 common types of antibiotics used in Hospital Tuanku Ja’ afar. Many students reading these posters had given verbal feedback that they found these posters very useful. Some students had even requested for the online PDF versions of the posters to be put up on the Club’s Facebook page. On 17 November 2015, A/Prof Lim Khean Ghee gave a talk on “When to, and not to use, antibiotics in surgery”. The talk attracted an audience of 70 people. On the next day, 118 faculty members and students attended an interactive session on Antibiotic for Dummies by A/Prof James Koh. During the session, students were asked questions in which they responded using the online voting system. At the Closing Ceremony on 19 November, those in attendance watched a 20 minute video featuring Ms Maryn McKenna speaking at a TEDx conference in June 2015 on “What do we do when antibiotics don’t work anymore”. It was then followed by a talk on “Antibiotic Resistance & Antibiotic Stewardship Programme” by one of IMU’s vice president, Prof Victor Lim. There was also a sharing session by students on the topic: “When I hear of antibiotic resistance or antibiotic stewardship, this comes to mind….”. Four students were invited to share their opinions and experience on the topic for 3 to 4 minutes each. The session was chaired by A/Prof James Koh. The ceremony was ended with pledging by faculty members and students on a canvas. More photos are available at http://sites.wpro.who.int/antibiotic_awareness/?page_id=330 and click at the AAW in Malaysia tab.