For the seventh year, the Small World Initiative® is teaming up with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention's (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Sociedad Española de Microbiología, and other partners for our annual Do Something About Antibiotics Challenge™! During the month of November, we invite students to develop their own creative projects to raise awareness about and change behaviors related to superbugs and the growing global antibiotic crisis. The timing coincides with the CDC's Annual Antibiotic Awareness Week and global activities from the World Health Organization.

Infectious disease threats, like the novel coronavirus and superbugs, undermine modern medicine. COVID-19 has already taken over a million lives, and superbugs remain one of the most pressing global health challenges of our time and complicate COVID-19 cases. According to the CDC, in the US alone, superbugs cause more than 2.8 million illnesses and 35,000 confirmed deaths each year. Due to underreporting, the real death toll is estimated to be more than 153,000 domestically. That means every three and a half minutes superbugs take another victim.

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has painfully exposed our unpreparedness and the devastating impact infectious diseases can have on our health, education, and economy as well as the very fabric of our society. While the challenges seem insurmountable, we firmly believe that leveraging the collective efforts of thousands of students and educators around the world can help solve these public health emergencies.

We are calling on all current and former SWI students to enter our Challenge to make a difference and win cool prizes! For more information, please read the Challenge announcement and rules below. To check out the creative and impactful ways SWI students around the world have taken action during previous Challenges, click here.

Announcement & Challenge Rules

The Do Something About Antibiotics Challenge™

Are you a current/former Small World Initiative® student?

Enter our Do Something About Antibiotics Challenge™ to make a difference and win a prize.

The Small World Initiative is teaming up with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Sociedad Española de Microbiología (SEM), and others to encourage you to do something about the antibiotic crisis in recognition of the CDC’s Annual Antibiotic Awareness Week (November 18th-24th). This coincides with global activities from the World Health Organization, European Union, Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), and similar organizations in Canada and Australia.

As Small World Initiative students know, antibiotic resistance – when bacteria stop responding to the drugs designed to kill them – is projected to become the most important medical challenge of the 21st century (WHO). The ongoing global pandemic has painfully exposed our unpreparedness to tackle any major infectious disease threat and the devastating impact these threats can have on our health, education, and economy. Like the novel coronavirus, superbugs (pathogens resistant to most or all antibiotics) undermine modern medicine, affect everyone, and require immediate action. They don’t need passports to travel the world. A problem in one country today is ultimately a problem for all countries tomorrow.

With the United Nations calling antibiotic resistance “the greatest and most urgent global risk,” we are just starting to understand how the ongoing pandemic is impacting the antibiotic crisis and the risk secondary infections pose to COVID patients. Initial studies show that:

• Although the overall proportion of bacterial co-infection is low, most COVID patients are prescribed antibiotics;

• About 1 in 7 hospitalized COVID patients develop secondary bacterial infections;

• Half of COVID patients who died experienced secondary infections (study in the Lancet on patients at two Wuhan hospitals)

Reflecting on previous viral pandemics, secondary infections had a large role in poor outcomes. For example, during the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic where an estimated one third of the world’s population was infected and 50 million people died as a result, Dr. Fauci and others have noted that most deaths were not caused by the influenza virus acting alone. Instead, most victims succumbed to bacterial pneumonia following influenza virus infection. Similarly, with the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, between 29-55% of the nearly 300,000 deaths were actually caused by secondary bacterial infections.

Without action, we risk turning back the clock to a world where simple infections could kill otherwise healthy individuals just as they did prior to the discovery of antibiotics. In the US alone, superbugs lead to more than 2.8 million illnesses and 35,000 deaths (CDC). Due to poor surveillance and reporting of superbug infections, some estimate the number of deaths in the US to be more than four-times higher than the CDC estimate (more than 153,000 deaths) (Kollef). The CDC has even warned that more than 800,000 Americans may soon be at risk of acquiring untreatable gonorrhea each year. If we continue on our current path and no significant action is taken by 2050, superbugs will kill 300 million people (that’s 10 million annually!!!) – more than cancer and diabetes combined (Review on Antimicrobial Resistance). Yet, pharmaceutical companies have shifted away from developing new antibiotics in favor of more lucrative ventures, and improper use of existing antibiotics exacerbates the problem.

We are running out of time on confronting one of the most pressing global challenges of our time. Yet, we possess the ingenuity to solve this problem, and we already understand the key causes and many of the possible solutions. It is not too late if we respond effectively with global collaboration. You have a very important role to play in stemming antibiotic resistance, and we are calling on you to do something.

By far, the single most important action to slow the development and spread of antibiotic-resistant infections is to improve the mass-scale misuse and overuse of antibiotics in humans and agriculture. Up to half of all antibiotics use in humans is either unnecessary or inappropriate. Each year in the US alone, doctors write at least 80 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions, which makes improving antibiotic prescribing a national priority (CDC). On top of that, animals consume more than twice as many medically important antibiotics as humans, and nearly all of this consumption is for growth promotion or prophylactic (Review on Antimicrobial Resistance).

Other factors include inadequate prevention and control of infections related to poor hygiene (wash hands!), access to proper sanitation and safe water, and immunization. In addition to taking action to slow the spread of infections, we need to employ collaborative ways to find new antibiotics, and we need more people to join and support the Small World Initiative in our endeavor to crowdsource antibiotic discovery.

Consider what impactful action you can take to help solve the public health emergency of our time. What can you do to help raise awareness of the threat of antibiotic resistance and get others to act?

How to Enter

1. All current and former SWI students are eligible to enter. (You may enter as a team or individually.)

2. Do something about superbugs and the antibiotic crisis! Use one of our ideas (below) or create your own.

3. Share what you did online via Twitter with @Team_SWI and/or Instagram smallworldinitiative. Include the following hashtags: #dosomething #BeAntibioticsAware #AntibioticResistance #superbugs #USAAW22. Where relevant, consider also tagging: @CDCgov, @CDC_NCEZID, @NIH, @NIAIDNews, @SEMicrobiologia, @WHO. (Remember…if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Don’t let your important actions go unnoticed. Announce them online!)

4. Submit a copy of your entry online using the Small World Initiative entry form. Include a description of your entry, any attachments (e.g., images, videos, etc.), where you posted your entry (Twitter and/or Instagram), and your contact information. To increase the judges’ understanding of the depth and reach of your project’s impact, this is a great place to provide any additional information that might not be obvious from the online post. For example, if you post a song or video, the judges can see how many people viewed it on YouTube or liked it on Twitter or Facebook. However, if you also played it for an audience at your school, the judges cannot see this information and would love to know how many people saw it and what actions you took to share your project.

Do Something About Antibiotics Challenge Ideas

Use these ideas or create your own! (Remember to get permission from your instructor if you are doing something on campus.)

• Get inspired by creative entries from our previous Challenges! (2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016)

• Make a Video – Be a director and/or an actor in your own medical genre classic bringing viewers on your journey to learn about the antibiotic crisis. Consider answering some of the following questions: What are superbugs? Why should you be concerned? What can you do about it? Do your peers have any misconceptions about superbugs or how to use antibiotics? Where would you expect to find microbes that produce antibiotics? (For ideas, check out past entries and other cool videos below.)

• Organize an Event – Ever want to share your research with the community? Maybe, you want to host an open house and walk others through what you are doing and why it is important. Are you a movie lover? Consider screening an outbreak-style film with an important message on how to keep that from happening in real life. Like games? Consider hosting a tournament to play Gut Check or Pandemic.

• Bake for Antibiotic Resistance – Do you like to practice your plating skills in the kitchen? Wonder what impact eating icing streaked, Petri-dish shaped cookies has on people? Hold an antibiotic-themed bake sale.

• Measure – Wonder how many people at your school really wash their hands after using the restroom? Curious about whether your classmates demand antibiotics every time they feel sick? Create a mini-study and share your results. How does your school compare to national averages? What recommendations do you have for improvement?

• Fundraise – Add a fundraising element to your action. Consider using funds to help Small World Initiative students at your school attend STEM conferences or donating to help the Small World Initiative train more educators from under-resourced schools. Film screenings and bake sales can have a fundraising element. Or, maybe, you want to design a catchy t-shirt on antibiotic resistance. Even better, create the next ice bucket challenge. Be sure to get permission from your instructor first. Let us know what you raise so that we can announce it.

• Write a Comic – Consider creative ways to reach a new audience.

Team: Lauren Jasper & Emma Schell; The Ellis School; SWIPI: Dr. Kassandra Wadsworth.

• Passionate about something else? Consider how you might incorporate that into our do something challenge.

Awards

We are excited to announce several award packages from the NIH and CDC! To see prize package details from previous years, please click here.

Deadline

Wednesday, November 30th

Flyer

Resources

• SWI Do Something About Antibiotics Challenge™ Toolkit (posters, flyer, handouts, and logo)

• CDC Toolkit (sample text, infographics, posters, animations, videos, handouts)

• WHO Materials

How Winners Are Selected

Winners will be selected based on the depth and reach of the impact of their actions. A Selection Committee will be made up of judges from the Small World Initiative, CDC, NIH, and other partners. Any conflicted parties will not vote on the final winner.

Restrictions

Don’t be offensive! While we understand that there is sometimes a fine line between what one person considers funny and another person considers offensive, SWI leadership will make final determinations on what is offensive. Any offensive entries should be immediately taken down upon request.

Submission Usage

By submitting an entry, entrants grant Small World Initiative® and Challenge partners an irrevocable license to use, repost, and publish entries. Entrants will be credited if/when their entries are used.

More Information

The Small World Initiative’s Do Something About Antibiotics Challenge™ is part of our Do Something Challenge™ series. For more information, please call us at 347-762-4818 or contact us. 

The Small World Initiative® is a registered 501(c)(3) public charity, and donations to SWI are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.