UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — University Health Services, a unit of Penn State Student Affairs, joins the Pennsylvania Department of Health to offer the seminar “Becoming a Better Steward: Antibiotic Use in an Outpatient Setting,” as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Get Smart About Antibiotics Week.
The seminar, featuring speakers Jerry Jacob, assistant professor of clinical medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and Erina MacGeorge, associate professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State, will be held Nov. 14 in Freeman Auditorium in the HUB-Robeson Center. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. and the presentation begins at 8 a.m. The seminar is free and open to the public.
The seminar will cover topics such as factors that drive drug-resistant bacteria and characteristics of a good antibiotic steward. Continuing education credits are available for physicians, advanced care practitioners and registered nurses through the Penn State College of Medicine and the Penn State College of Nursing.
Antibiotic resistance poses one of the most pressing public health threats, according to the CDC. Antibiotic use is the single most important contributing factor to antibiotic resistance and up to one-third to one-half of antibiotic use in humans is either unnecessary or inappropriate.
To raise awareness about the threat of antibiotic resistance, the CDC along with national and international partners, observe Get Smart Week each year. This year, it will be observed Nov. 13-19 in the U.S. For additional information please visit www.cdc.gov/getsmart.