The first World Antibiotic Awareness Week [5] (WAAW) will take place during 16–22 November 2015, with the slogan "Antibiotics: handle with care". 

WHO/Europe urges all countries in the European Region to join in during WAAW. As resistance of microbes to antibiotics knows no borders, this is a unique opportunity to join the global community in advocating for prudent antibiotic use. The global 2015 campaign calls on individuals, governments, the agriculture and animal husbandry sectors and health professionals to take urgent action to prevent antibiotic resistance.

WAAW continues and broadens the scope of European Antibiotic Awareness Day, a European initiative that WHO/Europe joined in 2012 and extended to non-European Union countries. 

"Research on new antibiotics has been very slow, and it is vital that we maintain our ability to treat infections ", says Danilo Lo Fo Wong, Programme Manager for Antibiotic Resistance at WHO/Europe. "What we must do – as policy-makers, health care workers, patients and farmers – is to ensure effective treatment for as long as possible through the rational use of antibiotics. This is what the new WAAW is all about."