Social dilemma in the excess use of antimicrobials incurring antimicrobial resistance

Abstract The emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) caused by the excess use of antimicrobials has come to be recognized as a global threat to public health. There is a ‘tragedy of the commons’ type social dilemma behind this excess use of antimicrobials, which should be recognized by all stake...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hiromu Ito, Takayuki Wada, Genki Ichinose, Jun Tanimoto, Jin Yoshimura, Taro Yamamoto, Satoru Morita
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2022-12-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25632-1
Description
Summary:Abstract The emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) caused by the excess use of antimicrobials has come to be recognized as a global threat to public health. There is a ‘tragedy of the commons’ type social dilemma behind this excess use of antimicrobials, which should be recognized by all stakeholders. To address this global threat, we thus surveyed eight countries/areas to determine whether people recognize this dilemma and showed that although more than half of the population pays little, if any, attention to it, almost 20% recognize this social dilemma, and 15–30% of those have a positive attitude toward solving that dilemma. We suspect that increasing individual awareness of this social dilemma contributes to decreasing the frequency of AMR emergencies.
ISSN:2045-2322