Cambridge kids, teenagers and adults can defeat a superbug by becoming 'disease detectives'
Children, teenagers and adults have a chance to tackle the cast of the indestructible superbug by becoming part of a team of disease detectives at the Cambridge science centre.
Children, from the age of 12, can take part in four half-hour free sessions in the evening on November 21 to mark World Antibiotic Awareness Week along with teenagers and adults.
There are four 30-minute sessions people can sign up to, 6pm, 6.30pm, 7pm and 7.30pm which will take place at the science centre on Clifton Road industrial estate in Cambridge.
Scientists from the Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance at the Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, and at the University of Cambridge will help the children hunt for the superbug.
They will become the ‘Disease Detectives and tasked with finding an answer to a simulated outbreak of a drug-resistant disease at a special event.
With scientists at their side, kids, teenagers and adults will learn the real techniques used to prevent antibiotic resistance from spreading.
It will enable them to learn how scientists tackle outbreaks of drug-resistant diseases. Each session lasts 30 minutes. Please book your slot when you register for tickets.
The parties will be given a five minute briefing and then move around lab and computer stations to tackle three tasks: identifying the bacterial strain in the lab to find out whether it’s resistant to an antibiotic or not, use different computer programmes to learn more about its behaviour, and if it’s been found anywhere else in the country or worldwide. The detectives can then decide what action to take to stop it getting out of control!
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is the ability of a microorganism (like bacteria) to stop an antimicrobial medicine, such as antibiotics, from working against it.
This means that some treatments might stop working, and so infections persist and may spread to others. AMR is a key issue for many countries around the world.
World Antibiotic Awareness Week is organised by the World Health Organisation and runs from November 18-24.
More information and tickets can be found here: http://bit.ly/diseasedetectives21Nov
