Most of us are aware of the word ‘Antibiotics’, it’s a very common medicine used in our lives, and the growing use of these medications have posed a serious threat to our lives, which we do need to address. The issue of ‘Antibiotic Resistance’ has gained world attention due to the huge amount of risk it poses to human health. No doubt, these medications are a wonder and life saving drugs, but the irrational and over use of these drugs have created serious risk factors.
Antibiotics are the drugs which we use to fight against bacterial infections in our body, they are used to prevent a lot of diseases caused by Bacterias, but we should know that these medications aren’t effective against viral infections, which includes common cold, flu etc. Antibiotics work by various mechanisms, like they may either kill the bacteria or prevent them from reproducing and spreading, known as Bactericidal and bacteriostatic respectively. They are grouped in various categories according to their mode of action, like Penicillins, Fluoroquinolones, cephalosporins, macrolides etc. While they act as life saving drugs, but due to the irrational and over use of these medicines by people , the microbes have developed the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill or stop them, which is known as Antibiotic Resistance, means Resistance against those Antibiotic medications which we use for specific bacterial diseases and infections. Resistant infections can be difficult, and even sometimes impossible to treat.
Antimicrobial Resistance is an urgent global public health threat, killing at least 1.27 million people worldwide and associated with nearly 5 million deaths in 2019. In the U.S., more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur each year. More than 35,000 people die as a result, according to CDC’s 2019 Antibiotic Resistance (AR) Threats Report. When Clostridium difficile—a bacterium that is not typically resistant but can cause deadly diarrhea and is associated with antimicrobial use—is added to these, the U.S. toll of all the threats in the report exceeds 3 million infections and 48,000 deaths.
Antimicrobial resistance has the potential to affect people at any stage of life, as well as the healthcare, veterinary, and agriculture industries. This makes it one of the world’s most urgent public health problems. If antibiotics lose their effectiveness, then we lose the ability to treat infections and control these public health threats.
Antimicrobial medicines are the cornerstone of modern medicine. The emergence and spread of drug-resistant pathogens threatens our ability to treat common infections and to perform life-saving procedures including cancer chemotherapy and cesarean section, hip replacements, organ transplantation and other surgeries. Antibiotic Resistance has also significant costs for both health systems and national economies overall.
Causes
Overuse, Inappropriate Prescribing, Extensive Agricultural use in Livestocks, Irrational use etc.
Preventions
To stop the growing issue of Antibiotic Resistance, we should take measures like, taking antibiotics only when needed, we should stop taking antibiotics without doctor’s consultation, we should take the medication exactly as prescribed by doctor, we should not self prescribe antibiotics or stop antibiotics on our own will, they pose serious risk of developing resistance. Always take a full prescription even if you feel better, never use leftover antibiotics and never share antibiotics.
Global Action Plan (GAP) on Antimicrobial Resistance
To address AMR globally, countries adopted the Global Action Plan (GAP) on AMR during the 2015 World Health Assembly and committed to the development and implementation of multisectoral national action plans with a One Health approach to tackle AMR. The GAP was subsequently endorsed by the Governing Bodies of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, formerly known as OIE) and the United Nations Environment Program.
World AMR Awareness Week (WAAW) is a global campaign to raise awareness, understanding and best practices with the public, One Health stakeholders, and other policymakers. One of WHO’s official health campaigns since 2015, WAAW is celebrated from 18 to 24 November every year.
It’s a serious issue which we should not take lightly as it can make a simple health issue into a severe life threatening risk. So it’s always a better option to take precautions and appropriate measures rather than to take a life threatening burden. Education and awareness is necessary, and we should spread awareness in whatever means we can. Life is precious; it’s our responsibility to take care of that. If we fail to act, we are looking at an almost unthinkable scenario where antibiotics no longer work and we are cast back into the dark ages of medicine.
(Author is MBBS Graduate and can be reached at: [email protected])
