Quick Guide to Antibiotic Resistance

Microbes are getting stronger, drugs are becoming less effective.  Could this lead to minor ailments such as a skinned knee, or sore throat to be fatal?  Why are simple ailments becoming more difficult to treat with antibiotics?

Antibiotic or antimicrobial resistance is a growing problem throughout the world.  It is the resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial medicine to which is was previously sensitive.  Resistant organisms (e.g. bacteria, viruses and parasites) are able to withstand the attack by antimicrobial medicines so that standard treatments become ineffective and infections can be easily spread to others.

Antibiotic resistance is a consequence of the over and misuse of antimicrobial medicines and develops when a microorganism mutates or acquires resistance.  Due to rampant abuse and over use of antibiotics has accelerated natural rates of bacterial evolution, antibiotic resistance is a common issue.  In the US, over 70% of hospital-acquired infections involve bacteria resistant to at least one antibiotic.

What does this mean to the future of medicine?

Antibiotic resistance is a global concern because it results in prolonged illness and greater risk of death, and it decreases the effective control of infectious diseases.  This antibiotic resistance results in our first-line antimicrobials becoming ineffective.  Replacement treatments are often more costly, more toxic and need much longer durations of treatment, with the possibility of treatment in the ICU.

Diseases that were once curable, such as TB, are becoming more difficult and more expensive to treat.  Antibiotic-resistant strains of salmonella, E. coli and gonorrhea have also been discovered.  Pharmaceutical companies, and the entire industry, hesitate to invest considerable sums of money to develop new antimicrobials when they can see that irrational use by physicians and patients will accelerate its ineffectiveness before the investment can return them money.

In this “post-antibiotic era” as some dub it, replacement antibiotics or pipeline antibiotics are virtually depleted.  The WHO fears that this could be the end to modern medicine as we know it.  Things as common as strep throat or a scratch could once again kill.  Surgical procedures, certain cancer treatments or even care of preterm infants could become risky or even impossible because of the lack of effective antibiotics.  Doctors and prescribers should only prescribe antibiotics when strictly necessary.  Policy makers and planners, pharmacists and the pharmaceutical industry, and physicians need to take responsibility for curbing antibiotic resistance. Food companies, farms, etc. should resist using antibiotics in food production.