Better training needed to maintain therapeutic arsenal Training medical students to use antibiotics prudently and rationally is key to curbing the dangerous spread of antibiotic resistance, says the World Health Organization. WHO highlighted resistance for World Health Day 2011, as the effectiveness of many drugs—to treat diarrhoea, respiratory infections, malaria, and tuberculosis among others—is being threatened by reckless use. “The emergence and spread of drug resistant pathogens has accelerated. More and more essential medicines are failing. The therapeutic arsenal is shrinking,” said WHO director general, Margaret Chan. To combat this, WHO has released a six part policy package, of which prescriber training is a big part. “I would say there is quite some room for improvement [in current teaching],” …