THE Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health (WCCEH) recently hosted a successful seminar all about antibiotic resistance.

The seminar was called Antibiotic resistance: a cultural contexts approach to addressing a global health challenge. More than 30 people attended the day with a further 120 watching on the live stream.

Guest speakers included Dr Katie Ledingham, Dr Saskia Nahrgang and Professor Neil Gow.

Antibiotic resistance is the resistance of previously sensitive bacteria to antibiotic medicine and is a major threat to global health and well-being. Antibiotic resistance has multiple causes and there are many approaches to reducing resistance, which span the biomedical, social and cultural spheres.

The webinar investigated the cultural factors that shape antibiotic use and help in understanding the transmission of antibiotic resistance, such as the way culture shapes the protocols defining how antibiotic resistance is researched and regulated. The webinar also launched a policy brief examining the cultural contexts of antibiotic resistance and approaches to tackling this issue.