Antibiotic resistance threat to patients

“A lot of common surgical procedures and cancer chemotherapy will be virtually impossible if antibiotic resistance is not tackled urgently”.

A recent study by researchers at Duke University showed that rates of drug-resistant E. coli infections have doubled in the past five years at 26 community hospitals in the southeastern United States.

Spreading antibiotic resistance could have disastrous consequences for patients undergoing surgery or chemotherapy, a study said on Thursday.

Infections during and after surgeries and chemotherapy are common, so it is standard practice to give these patients antibiotics.

Now patients having routine surgery are given antibiotics before, during or after their operations to prevent hospital infections.

In the USA, about 80 percent of antibiotics are used for livestock and 20 percent for humans, according to the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), a Washington, D.C.-, and New Delhi-based think tank.

They estimate that if the drugs lost 30% of their power to protect against bugs, it would lead to 120,000 more infections and 6,300 more patients dying. However, in the United Kingdom at present, there are no major signs of antibiotics failing to control infections after routine surgery. A study in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases has, for the first time, quantified the potential impact of resistance in the operating theatre and in chemotherapy. “Not only is there an immediate need for up-to-date information to establish how antibiotic prophylaxis recommendations should be modified in the face of increasing resistance, but we also need new strategies for the prevention and control of antibiotic resistance at national and global levels”. “All clinicians have a responsibility to prevent this situation from becoming our patients’ reality by supporting efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance worldwide and by supporting antimicrobial stewardship at home [using systemic interventions such as clinician education, guideline development, and formulary restriction to optimise antibiotic use]”.

And as the elderly population increased, they would have more operations and be more at risk of infections, he said.

They found that 39 per cent of infections after caesarean sections, and 50-90 per cent of infections after rectal prostate biopsies, were caused by organisms resistant to common antibiotics.

Ron Phillips, the vice president of Legislative and Public Affairs for the Animal Health Institute (AHI), which represents companies that make medicines for animals, including livestock, says his organization took a “neutral position” on the bill, believing it “balances concerns about antibiotic resistance with producers’ need for access to antibiotics to keep animals healthy”.