PEOPLE in Swindon are being warned of the dangers of misusing antibiotics this winter.

The more antibiotics are used to treat simple conditions the more likely they are to stop working as bacteria adapt to the drug, eventually becoming antibiotic resistant.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest threats to our health and we face a future without cures for even simple infections if the medicine is not used effectively and responsibly.

While antibiotics are essential in treating bacterial infections, taking them too often, or not finishing a course prescribed to cure a chest infection for example can allow bacteria to build a resistance to the drug.

The overuse of antibiotics in recent years has played a major part in antibiotic resistance.

This includes using antibiotics to treat minor conditions that would have got better anyway.

It has led to the emergence of so-called ‘superbugs’.

These are strains of bacteria that have developed resistance to many different types of antibiotics as a result of overuse.