Perception of antibiotics in Polish Internet during the infection season 2023/2024

Aim. Public health researchers have used the Internet for disease surveillance, the assessment of risk perception and behaviour changes during epidemics in the past. Cur- rently, investigations of antibiotics (ABx) mentions and the closely related concept of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on the Internet are mostly limited to information retrieval as well as simple analysis of Google Trends and media narratives. Methods. To address these shortcomings, we perform media listening and analysis for monitoring of ABx perception in the Polish segment of the Internet during November and December 2023 with Brand24 – a comprehensive Internet analysis tool – based on 2668 mentions. Results. Although the scientific community is aware of the importance of AMR, it was not reflected by the general public perception. Real life examples of public engagement related to practical solutions – such as natural and alternative medicine, and ABx acqui- sition with special focus on children among others – dominated the Internet discourse. Conclusion. Our findings demonstrate that while the interest in health topics in the general Polish population is high, it is often not matched by a sound biomedical literacy. A long-term patient engagement could be difficult, as they tend to think from an indi- vidual perspective (how to help myself/my family/my companion animal) rather than in the context of public health and one health.