A few bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics

Any exposure to an antibiotic gives bacteria the opportunity to become resistant, as does taking antibiotics when they are not needed or not using them as prescribed. It scares WHO. Antibiotic resistance happens naturally as certain antibiotics like amoxycillin are too often prescribed and lose their efficacy.

“The rise of antibiotic resistance is a global health crisis”, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told reporters in a teleconference from Geneva, where the organization’s headquarters are located.

A growing number of infections, including pneumonia, tuberculosis, and gonorrhoea, are already becoming harder to treat as the antibiotics used to treat them become less effective.

“Antibiotics only work on bacteria, they won’t help to treat a virus, which is the main cause of cold and flu”, Mr Monk said.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria attack about 2 million people annually in the USA and kill at least 23,000, according to the CDC.

Jennifer Boswell, a pharmacist with Health PEI, said misuse of antibiotics leads creates superbugs that are resistant to them.

Three-quarters of respondents consider antibiotic insurgency means a physique is resistant to a drugs, for example, since in fact it is a germ themselves that spin resistant to antibiotics, and their widespread causes hard-to-treat infections.

The scientists were conducting routine surveillance for antibiotic resistance in E. coli when they found the resistant specimen in a pig.

Broken down by country, the survey for instance showed that five percent of Chinese respondents who had taken antibiotics in the past six months had purchased them on the Internet, while the same percentage in Nigeria had bought them from a stall or hawker. Not taking the full course of antibiotics doesn’t benefit the user at all, it just leaves behind bacteria that are better adapted at evading the effects of the drug, leading to a more resistant strain. “If MCR-1 becomes global, which is a case of when not if, and the gene aligns itself with other antibiotic resistance genes, which is inevitable, then we will have very likely reached the start of the post-antibiotic era”. Almost half (44%) of people surveyed think antibiotic resistance is only a problem for people who take antibiotics regularly. The survey found that nearly two thirds (64 per cent) respondents said that they know antibiotic resistance is an issue that could affect them and their families, but how it affects them and what they can do to address it are not well understood.

“Doctors must treat antibiotics as a valuable commodity”, Chan emphasized.

“More than three quarters (76 pc) of respondents report having taken antibiotics within the past six months”.

This year on Antibiotic Awareness Day everyone is asked to pledge their support and become an “Antibiotic Guardian” whether they’re doctors, farmers, vets or the general public.