Antibiotic-resistant germs kill 700,000 people every year throughout the world.
Since the middle of the twentieth century, the widespread use of antibiotics and vaccines has expanded life expectancy, reduced infant mortality, and enabled invasive surgery and chemotherapy treatments.
It all started in 1928, when Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the antibiotic that changed medicine forever. For a moment, it seemed as though humanity’s war against viruses would finally be over owing to these new and strong weapons.
Expectations, on the other hand, have not been met. That war is still a long way from being won. How is this even possible? Due to bacteria resistance to antibiotics, it’s really straightforward. That is, bacteria’ ability to withstand antibiotics that would typically kill them or halt their growth.
A global public health problem
Every year, more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the U.S., and more than 35,000 people die as a result of microorganisms resistant to antibiotics.
Continuing with the numbers, antibiotic-resistant bacteria cause 700,000 fatalities worldwide each year. They are, nevertheless, responsible for 15.5 percent of hospital-acquired infections. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are responsible for more than 75 percent of infections in hospitalized patients in some parts of the world. These are mind-boggling figures.
As a result, we’re talking about one of the most serious risks to world health and social development, one that can harm everyone of any age in any country. Antimicrobial resistance is, in fact, regarded as a major global public health issue.
And it does not appear that the situation will improve anytime soon. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to estimates, might kill 10 million people by 2050 unless worldwide action is taken.
To top it off, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a huge financial burden, costing the global healthcare system roughly $ 1 billion every year. They have even resulted in a loss of more than $ 3 trillion in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Although this is a natural process that has been observed in clinical practice since the first generation antibiotics were used to treat microbial infections, the continued use of antibiotics, self-medication, and infection exposure in hospitals has hastened the development of multi-resistant bacteria.
ESKAPE Pathogens
Antimicrobial resistance (ADR) does not affect all bacteria in the same way. Six species have been selected by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) as particularly dangerous due to their virulence and potential multidrug resistance pathways. Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter spp are the bacteria that make up the acronym “ESKAPE.”
This type of pathogenic bacteria appears to be able to “escape” the bactericidal effects of some drugs. Furthermore, the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified multi-resistant pathogenic microorganisms into three categories:
Group 1: critical priority: It includes Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and some Enterobacteriaceae such as Klebsiella pneumonie, Escherichia coli. Also several species of the genera Serratia and Proteus. All of them are resistant to carbapenems.
Group 2: high priority: It includes Enterococcus faecium (resistant to vancomycin), Staphylococcus aureus (resistant to methicillin and with intermediate sensitivity and resistance to vancomycin), Helicobacter pylori (resistant to clarithromycin), Campylobacter spp. (resistant to fluoroquinolones), Salmonella (resistant to fluoroquinolones) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (resistant to cephalosporin and fluoroquinolones).
Group 3: medium priority: It includes Streptococcus pneumoniae (not sensitive to penicillin), Haemophilus influenzae (resistant to ampicillin), and Shigella spp. (resistant to fluoroquinolones).
Cure
The development of novel antibiotics is critical in the fight against bacterial resistance. Recently, a team led by Harvard University’s Andrew G. Myers created a technology for producing a wide spectrum of new entirely synthetic analog antibiotics using lincosamides. After investigating the antibacterial activity of over 500 analogues, they discovered iboxamycin, a promising chemical that is effective against strains that are resistant to other antibiotics.
The solution to avoid problems is to use them wisely and only when prescribed by a certified healthcare professional.
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