What is an antibiotic amnesty?
An antibiotic amnesty is a campaign which encourage members of the public to return unused or expired antibiotics to any local pharmacy for safe disposal.
Why are we running an antibiotic amnesty campaign?
Saving antibiotics for use at a later date, unless told to do so by a healthcare professional, can be harmful for a number of reasons:
- Taking saved antibiotics may cause harmful side effects but have little or no clinical benefit if it is the wrong kind of antibiotic, or if an antibiotic isn’t needed.
- Even if the antibiotic is the right treatment, the amount of antibiotic saved may not be enough to treat another episode of illness effectively.
- Sharing antibiotics with others, even if they appear to have the same symptoms, can be very dangerous. The antibiotic:
- might not be suitable and correct treatment may be delayed.
- may interact with other medicines, cause side effects or cause allergic reactions.
- could mask the signs of a more serious problem that needs medical attention.
- Disposing of medicines in the general waste or via the sink/toilet contaminates rivers and seas and leads to increasing levels of antibiotic resistant bacteria in these waters.
- Children may come across unused or unwanted antibiotics if they are not stored safely and be harmed by ingesting them.
People are often not aware of how to dispose of medicines safely. Community pharmacies will accept returns of unwanted medicines from households and individuals which require safe disposal. All returned medicines are collected by specialist waste disposal contractors and the medicines are incinerated – no medicines are disposed of via landfill or water courses.
