Abstract
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics remains one of the key problems in community and hospital settings throughout whole world. The increased number of resistant strains correlates with an increasing consumption of antibiotics.
In the community, both physicians and patients are responsible for the worsening trend. Data from the international literature suggest that patients are able to put pressure on their physician for an antibiotic prescription even in cases where the physician deems it not necessary or suitable.
In order to understand better habits in our country, we questioned 1242 adult respondents in the Czech Republic in 2008. Our results show that people in the Czech Republic are not adequately informed about infections and antibiotics.
Nevertheless, the people mostly respect their physician, and accept his/her decision and do not force him/her to antibiotic prescription. Only 13% of respondents would like to buy antibiotics without medical prescription and 95% agree with mandatory vaccination against most serious infections.
A sophisticated system of medical postgradual education works in the Czech Republic but we also need public education, which should preferentially be addressed to school children and their parents.