Direk LimmathurotsakulJonathan A.T. SandoeDavid C. BarrettMichael CorleyLi Yang HsuMarc MendelsonPeter CollignonRamanan LaxminarayanSharon J. PeacockPhilip HowardNational University Health SystemUniversity of CambridgeUniversity of OxfordUniversity of BristolCanberra HospitalMahidol UniversityLeeds Teaching Hospitals NHS TrustAustralian National UniversityPrinceton UniversityUniversity of Cape TownCenter for Disease DynamicsNational Centre for Infectious DiseasesInternational Society for Infectious DiseasesBritish Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy2020-01-272020-01-272019-08-01The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy. Vol.74, No.8 (2019), 2122-2127146020912-s2.0-85070119255https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/51521© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. 'Superbugs', bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics, have been in numerous media headlines, raising awareness of antibiotic resistance and leading to multiple action plans from policymakers worldwide. However, many commonly used terms, such as 'the war against superbugs', risk misleading people to request 'new' or 'stronger' antibiotics from their doctors, veterinary surgeons or pharmacists, rather than addressing a fundamental issue: the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals. Simple measures of antibiotic consumption are needed for mass communication. In this article, we describe the concept of the 'antibiotic footprint' as a tool to communicate to the public the magnitude of antibiotic use in humans, animals and industry, and how it could support the reduction of overuse and misuse of antibiotics worldwide. We propose that people need to make appropriate changes in behaviour that reduce their direct and indirect consumption of antibiotics.Mahidol UniversityMedicineArticleSCOPUS10.1093/jac/dkz185