Antibiotics are sometimes life-saving when use to treat bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance develops spontaneously as the bacteria evolve. In many countries, there is an unethical use of antibiotics which are accelerating the pace at which bacteria develop and disseminate resistance. What measures could be taken to limit the use of antibiotics and thereby limit the development of resistance?
There should be a policy of antibiotic stewardship program based on national/ international antibiotic guidelines where local microbial patterns and resistance patterns are considered properly. Physicians prescribing behavior is a worthy consideration and of utmost importance. A hospital-based multidisciplinary team should look after all the issues.
Today, we are witnessing the global crisis of antibiotics resistance that has attained a point where, if action is not taken, human medicine will enter a post-antibiotic world and simple injuries could once again be life threatening.
There is a growing concern about the emergence of bacterial strains showing resistance to all classes of antibiotics, commonly used in human medicine. The successful treatment of healthcare-associated infections is hampered due to the high levels of resistance to survive against antibiotic therapies leading to severe inappropriate and irrational use of antimicrobial agents. Today, in the USA, more people are killed by MRSA than by AIDS. Though, there is no such report on crude infectious disease mortality rate in India, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Particularly, when India’s antibiotics consumption has increased by 103% from 2000 to 2015, leading to India has one of the highest rates of antibiotic resistance in the world. This is particularly problematic in hospital settings where increasing prevalence of multi-drug-resistant bacterial strains, rendering some patients effectively untreatable and constitute a significant burden on the health-care system.
In 2014, around 700,000 people across the world died due to infections associated with drug resistance, a number that is estimated to touch 10 million by 2050.
1. Re-train the so-called heath experts. 2. Let microbiological researches the develop into drug formulation concentrate mostly on narrow-spectrum antibiotics. 3. Impose firm sanctions on health systems and heath care providers that undermine laid down regulations. 4. Overhaul regulatory bodies and de-centralize them for easy detection of those who flout instructions.
Thanks Maurice Ekpenyong and Sadia Ferdous for your valued comments, especially Sadia Ferdous has listed few very good issues that should get due attention.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Entomology
- Resistance