The RAISE AWARENESS focus area describes the practical steps to begin or strengthen awareness raising initiatives on antibiotic use and resistance, and provides tools and inspiration for the work.
Why raise awareness?
The goal of raising awareness is to change behaviors and social norms that fuel the problem of antibiotic resistance.
There are behaviors, beliefs and practices that are common to many people which can be very inappropriate when it comes to antibiotic use. There are also many misconceptions about what antibiotic resistance is, how it spreads or what impact it has.
For example, patients may self-medicate and demand antibiotics when they are not needed, and healthcare providers may prescribe or recommend antibiotics unnecessarily. Antibiotics are also used in large amounts for non-medical purposes, such as for routine mass-medication of healthy food animals. In many parts of the world antibiotics are also still used as growth promoters in food-animal production.
There are many reasons for inappropriate behavior, including a lack of understanding of the issue and intensive marketing campaigns that promote antibiotic use.
The importance of effective awareness raising and education
A systematic review from 2025 looked at existing evidence on the public’s knowledge of antibiotic use and resistance:
- The majority of the public were aware antibiotics works against bacterial infections (around 73%)
- However, 60% believe they are also active against viruses
- There are large national variations. In regards to ineffectiveness of antibiotics against viral infections, estimates ranged from 7.2% to 77.0% in different countries.
- Only about 40% were aware resistant bacteria can spread person to person.
Approach
Decisions influenced by human behavior are made before prescribing, dispensing, consuming or discarding antibiotics. In order to change deep-rooted behaviors connected to antibiotic use, social and cultural norms related to health and medicine first must be understood.
Effective advocacy and communication, education and training, and empowerment and networking can lead to improved awareness and understanding of antibiotic resistance and can facilitate behavior change. The COM-B model is a framework for understanding and driving behavior change. It suggests that any behavior (B) depends on three essential components: capability (C), opportunity (O), and motivation (M). By examining these factors, it is possible to uncover why a behavior occurs and design interventions that promote effective change.
Antibiotic resistance is a complex phenomenon that has an impact on human health, animal health and the environment. It is thus important to address the problem from a holistic, or One Health perspective.
Who to target?
Efforts can be aimed at the general public, healthcare professionals, educators, industry, food business operators, civil society organizations, policy makers or opinion leaders, to name a few.