Heiman Wertheim (right) has spoken to people buying and selling antibiotics in Ghana to understand when and why antibiotics are dispensed. Credit:Samuel Afari Asiedu

If people can’t identify antibiotics, they won’t use them with the care necessary to minimize antimicrobial resistance. Heiman Wertheim, a medical microbiologist at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, is principal investigator of the Antibiotic Access and Use (ABACUS) project. He spoke to Nature about his efforts to make it easier for people to distinguish antibiotics from other medicines.

What brought your attention to this issue?

ABACUS was set up to study antibiotic consumption in low- and middle-income countries.

Nature Outlook: Antimicrobial resistance

We surveyed households in several countries in Africa and Asia about when they last used an antibiotic, and where they got it from.…