Good discussion

Falah Hasan Obayes Al-Khikani

Thank you for your support.

The intensive use of antibiotics during the pandemic led to increases in the prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria. The rising number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and our decreasing capacity to eradicate them not only render us more vulnerable to bacterial infections but also weaken us during viral pandemics. The COVID-19 pandemic reminds us of the great health challenges we are facing, especially regarding antibiotic-resistant bacteria. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7419722/

Check https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2020.01434/full

The danger is real and developing countries are going to be worse hit for it.

I think with the vaccines available now, means less use of antibiotics.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed; I was hoping the same as Kiprotich Kiptum, that the use of vaccinations will reduce the high numbers of COVID-19 that we have seen during the pandemic and therefore the need for broad spectrum antibiotics. I hope the vaccinations will continue to be effective if there are increasingly more variants of the virus.

Dear Mary C R Wilson , the so-called antibiotic resistance threat is a false proposition. Actually, all bacteria are not dangerous and they are self-limiting, and antibiotics are not necessary for immunocompetent subjects. Antibiotics should only be used in immunocompromised subjects like HIV patients. Please refer to the following paper for more information on this issue:

Article Phagocytes, Antibiotics, and Self-Limiting Bacterial Infections

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_antibiotic_resistance-causes_effects

Have a look at the following RG links.

Article Antimicrobial Resistance as a Hidden Menace Lurking Behind t...

Article Antibiotics and Antimicrobial Resistance in the COVID-19 Era

Thank you Dr Ligen Yu for your response. I have requested the full text and have read the abstract.

Jaydip Datta - thank you. I have been following your discussion and recommended it s while ago. Antibiotic resistance is something that has been concerning me for some time. Before I retired (2012) I was following different routes to treating urinary tract infections to avoid courses of antibiotics.

Dr Arvind Singh - thank you. I have downloaded and saved both the papers and will read them with interest.

Dear Mary C R Wilson , I have sent to you the two full papers by Levin BR, please check. The real problem is the over-growth of bacteria outside our body in the digestive tract (gastrointestinal tract, GIT) or the respiration tract or any other parts of skins outside our body. For these bacteria, our immune system cannot reach, and the antibiotics can only kill part of them. Yet such over-growth can be controlled by restrictive eating of the host. I had Acute otitis media (AOM) and Pharyngitis before, and they cannot be cured by any medicine. But after I lost weight by eat less and maintain a BMI around 19 to 20, all the symptoms of AOM and pharyngitis was gone and never happen again. The actual problem is the overnutrition of the patients that feeds the bacteria over-growth. If one can reduce the population of the bacteria, they are not an issue.

Thank you, Dr Ligen Yu, for the papers that I have just downloaded and saved, and also for sharing your interesting personal case history. It's really good that you were able to overcome your medical problems by your own actions, and I'm sure, your will power, to lose the excess weight. I expect it will have benefitted more than the two main problems that you were aiming to overcome by weight loss.

It reminds me of before I retired, when there was a lot of discussion about holistic care; treating the whole person rather than concentrating on one particular complaint.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/asp/covid-19&ved=2ahUKEwjuhOLH0t3wAhVr_rsIHU4KAzQQFjAHegQIBRAC&usg=AOvVaw2863jjuD_DHLVTmQ2R9oUd

Thank you, Mohmmed Faris, for sharing this (above) link. I have had a quick look and now am going to spend a bit more time on it.

Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) vaccines are administered to people who do not currently suffer from other infectious diseases, including those caused by bacteria. Having a vaccine for Coronavirus carries a defined low risk of complications for up to 2 weeks after receiving the vaccine. To reduce the risk of complications, any other infectious diseases should be treated before receiving the Coronavirus vaccine. Antibiotics do not work against viruses, so administration of antibiotics is justified after performing tests to determine the causative agent of a specific infectious disease, a disease potentially coexisting for Covid-19, i.e. to diagnose whether the pathogen is specific bacteria, viruses, or perhaps other microorganisms. The aforementioned diagnostics is necessary to precisely determine the dose of the antibiotic and choose the right antibiotic. In addition, the use of antibiotics should be limited to the necessary minimum, because they are harmful to various internal organs and may reduce the overall level of the body's resistance to various infectious descent caused by various biotic (viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa) and abiotic factors (environmental contamination, the negative effects of which reach the human body mainly through the respiratory and / or digestive system).

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

For those interested, we have an open special issue about it

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/antibiotics/special_issues/anti_covid

Dear Colleagues,

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has had a global impact, leading to more than 120 million cases confirmed and more than 2.6 million deaths reported as of March 16, 2021. The implications on the management of patients including multiple aspects, such as the repurposing of antimicrobials, as in the case of antibiotics, but also the therapy of bacterial secondary infections and coinfections, have been matters of concern since the beginning of the pandemic. This Special Issue will present emerging concepts regarding the implications of antibiotics use during the COVID-19 pandemic, searching for further understanding of the current evidence and future scenarios.

Prof. Dr. Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales Guest Editor

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/antibiotics/special_issues/anti_covid

Prof Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales

Thank you for the link; I have downloaded the pdf to the editorial 'Implications of Antibiotic Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Example of Associated Antimicrobial Resistance in Latin America' and will be interested to read it.

Well worth reading the above link from Prof Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales

It is also available on RG:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350281501_Implications_of_Antibiotic_Use_during_the_COVID-19_Pandemic_The_Example_of_Associated_Antimicrobial_Resistance_in_Latin_America/stats

I am totally agree with you

Good discussion

Thanks to all researchers for this discussion on a very important topic.

In this regard I would like to share my article published in August 2020.

Kindly have a look on this perspective article.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343466594_Traditional_Herbal_Remedies_with_a_Multifunctional_Therapeutic_Approach_as_an_Implication_in_COVID-19_Associated_Co-Infections

Thanks and Regards

Ishan Pandey

Dr Ishan Pandey

Thank you for the link for your important and relevant article. I encourage other RG members to download it: 'Traditional Herbal Remedies with a Multifunctional Therapeutic Approach as an Implication in COVID-19 Associated Co-Infections'.

Thanks Dr. @Mary C R Wilson for your encouragement, I have few more publication addressing antimicrobial resistance and devising herbal (mycotherapy) based anti-infective therapeutic strategies.

Please have a view:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344838666_Emerging_paradigm_against_global_antimicrobial_resistance_via_bioprospecting_of_mushroom_into_novel_nanotherapeutics_development

Regards

Ishan Pandey

Dr Ishan Pandey

Thank you for this; I have also downloaded 'Emerging paradigm against global antimicrobial resistance via bioprospecting of mushroom into novel nanotherapeutics development' and be looking at it shortly.

Dr. @Mary C R Wilson, in our recent publication we tried to standardize antimicrobial edible coatings to curb infectious agents through food safety and utilising functional food like Mushroom which has Vit D , Polysaccharides, many polyphenols etc. to function as potential source.

As Hippocrates said

"Let food be thy medicine and Medicine be thy food".

The link to that is here:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351009179_Validating_Anti-Infective_Activity_of_Pleurotus_Opuntiae_via_Standardization_of_Its_Bioactive_Mycoconstituents_through_Multimodal_Biochemical_Approach

Thanks again for your motivational support.

Hi. I hope the following article could help you:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7419722/

Dr Ishan Pandey

Thank you very much for the above link; I have downloaded it and will soon be reading it.

Prof Aref Wazwaz

Thank you, also, for the above link which I have also downloaded and will also be reading it with great interest.

the same is true in our country with regard to covid-19 disease, there is self-medication with broad spectrum antibiotics associated with the indigenous product. this makes the situation complicated especially in our low income countries.

Dr Woolf Kapiteni

Thank you. Yes, I do agree with you, especially when people are able to self medicate in this way.

Also have a look at this:

Article Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in COVID-19 patients: a syste...

Thank you, Dr Arvind Singh for this interesting link.

Please also go through the following RG link.

Article Indiscriminate Use of Antibiotics for COVID-19 Treatment in ...

Dr Arvind Singh

Thank you; I have been looking at this link, and happily, the full text is readily available.

Yes, it is very concerning to read about bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics. Thank you for your link to this publication.

I would encourage other RG members to read it.

The following study provide overview of early findings on COVID-19 and AMR as well as to provide recommendations and lesson learned toward improving antimicrobial stewardship.

Article COVID-19 and Antimicrobial Resistance: A Review

Dr Manal Hadi Kanaan

Thank you for the link to this excellent review, which is available in full text on ResearchGate. Well worth reading, especially - as you mentioned, above - 'lesson learned and recommendations'.