|
What
is antibiotic resistance & why is it a problem?
Since the 1940s, antibiotics have been the cornerstone of infectious
disease therapy. Their remarkable healing power invites widespread and
often inappropriate use, which leads to antibiotic resistance among
bacteria and consequent treatment complications.
Antibiotics are prescribed for infections
caused by bacteria. Antibiotics should not be used for infections caused
by viruses such as the common cold and flu …
Don't
leave here without this advice...
Here are
some actions you can take to limit the development of antibiotic resistance--
- Do not
demand antibiotics from your physician.
- When
given antibiotics, take them exactly as prescribed and complete the
full course of treatment; do not hoard pills for later use or share
leftover antibiotics.
- Wash
your hands properly to reduce the chance of getting sick and spreading
infection.
- Wash
fruits and vegetables thoroughly; avoid raw eggs and undercooked meat,
especially in ground form. (The majority of food items which cause
diseases are raw or undercooked foods of animal origin such as meat,
milk, eggs, cheese, fish or shellfish.)
- When
protecting a sick person whose defenses are weakened, soaps and other
products with antibacterial chemicals are helpful, but should be used
according to established procedures and guidelines.
Multiple-drug
resistance
Sometimes bacteria find
a way to fight the antibiotic you are taking and your infection won't
go away. When antibiotic resistance develops, your doctor must prescribe
a different antibiotic in order to fight the infection.
Multiple-drug resistance
occurs when bacteria are resistant to more than one antibiotic. This
is generally the rule rather than the exception among resistant bacteria.
This situation has largely occurred through the sequential use of multiple
different antibiotics. The first antibiotic began by selecting a single
resistance gene. Eventually, however, bacteria resistant to the first
antibiotic picked up resistance to others as they were introduced into
the environment. It's like a snowball rolling downhill, becoming bigger
and stronger and not losing what it had acquired before.
Factors that contribute
to antibiotic resistance
- misuse and overuse of
antibiotics in humans, animals and agriculture
- demand for antibiotics
when antibiotics are not appropriate
- failure to finish an
antibiotic prescription
- availability of antibiotics
without a prescription in some countries
Penicillin: the First
Miracle Drug
Alexander Fleming, a Scottish
scientist, is credited with discovering the first antibiotic, penicillin.
In 1928, he noticed that bacteria could not survive on a plate that
contained a mold commonly found on bread. He went on to show that the
effect was due to a diffusible substance made by the mold. However,
penicillin was not available to the general public until the early 1940s
when scientists learned how to produce and purify large amounts of penicillin.
In fact, technically speaking, Fleming may have rediscovered a substance
that had been found before. In 1896, the French medical student Ernest
Duchesne showed antibiotic properties of the mold Penicillium,
but did not report a connection between the fungus and a substance that
had antibacterial properties. Penicillium was unknown to the
scientific community until Fleming discovered the phenomenon and the
substance, and named it penicillin.
In 1895, there was a report by an Italian researcher, Vincenzo Tiberio,
describing a natural substance from molds which had antibacterial properties
resembling penicillin. Yet another report describes a professor at John
Hopkins University in Baltimore who showed his students an agar plate
with a mold which inhibited bacterial growth. (Levy, S.B. The Antibiotic
Paradox. How Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers.
Perseus Books, 2002). So perhaps others had seen and described the phenomenon,
but Fleming was the first to bring such a substance to wide scientific
attention.
|
