Antibiotic Resistance: Biggest Threat to Global Health

Amid COVID-19 pandemic, antibiotic resistance has emerged as one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today.

Many diseases have now become untreatable or else have become difficult to treat because of the increasing resistance to drugs and that is the main reason why antibiotic resistance needs to be avoided, Dr SK Sarkar told IANS.

Drug Resistance – Antibiotic or Antimicrobial Resistance
Drug resistance is often a problem in malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and hospital acquired diseases. Judicious use of antibiotics can control the problem.

‘Post-antibiotic era: Resistance can spread everywhere and create untreatable infections with antibiotic resistance which can affect anyone, of any age.’

Speaking on the reasons responsible for creating AMR, he said the first reason is the misuse of antibiotics while the second reason for AMR is when you use it and stop it in between without completing its cycle and the third reason is when the doses are not within the range.

Use of antibiotics by various private practitioners who are incompetent and don't know how to use which antibiotic in which condition is another reason for AMR, he added.

As per the World Health Organisation, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

Test your Knowledge on Antibiotic Resistance
Antibiotic resistance is a growing public health concern that has reached gigantic proportions. Antibiotic resistance is a change that occurs in bacteria when they are exposed to antibiotics used to treat infections caused by them. This change makes the antibiotics ineffective and the antibiotic-resistant bacteria become “superbugs”.

Sarkar said that the prolonged use of antibiotics is always harmful and may lower body resistance to fight against viral or bacterial infection.

Another senior medical practitioner Dr Virendra Singh said, "Antibiotics are very important weapon for human being and therefore they should be used wisely, but unfortunately, they are being used widely and the result is widespread AMR. The need of the hour is to use it judiciously," he added.

New Device To Detect Antibiotic Resistance Developed
To detect antibiotic resistance, a new device based on the principle of rate of electron transfer has been developed. This device reduces the time required for testing to five hours.

In 1928, penicillin was discovered by a renowned scientist Fleming and imagine that in the next 100 years, we have created a situation of AMR, he said expressing worry about the growing trend of AMR.

Nitesh Mittal, Managing Director of a Swedish company involved in research on AMR, confirmed that researchers worldwide are worried about AMR trends and are trying to find a solution amid the pandemic.

Collective Intelligence Might Reduce Antibiotic Resistance and Overuse
Wisdom of crowds or collective intelligence approach to antibiotic stewardship enhances the guidelines for decision making in prescribing antibiotics.

Mittal along with many Indian scientists is researching various facts on AMR and is breaking the vicious loop of inventing stronger antimicrobial chemicals which check microbes from getting further resistant.

Several infections including pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrohea, and salmonellosis are becoming harder to treat as the antibiotics used to treat them become less effective, he told IANS.

Every year, about 100 million people suffer from infections that don't get treated by antimicrobial chemicals. In many of these cases, people lose their lives.

Source-IANS