The toolkit contains template materials and some suggested key messages focusing on self-medication with antibiotics, ideas for awareness raising activities, and suggested tactics for getting the messages across to the general public regarding prudent use of antibiotics, especially to people self-medicating with antibiotics.
This guidance document is based on research of social media activity related to antibiotic use at EU level, as well as on a survey of the social media activities of EAAD partner organisations, mostly EU umbrella organisations of patients and health professionals. Following the research and the survey, we have proposed social media activities that could be undertaken as part of national prudent antibiotic use campaigns. The proposed activities are presented in three sections that are targeting the general public, primary care prescribers and hospital prescribers.
The primary target audience is antibiotic prescribers in hospitals. The secondary audiences are hospital managers and to a lesser extent hospital pharmacists and pharmaceutical / antibiotic stewardship committees.
The toolkit offers template materials and advice on how campaign organisers could engage with the general public so as to promote appropriate and responsible use of antibiotics.
This R-based tool allows users to monitor trends of tweets by time, place and topic, with the aim of detecting public health threats early through signals.