Emerging Antibiotics Resistance: A wake-up call for action

Have you ever treated a particular disease and was not cured? Are you not surprised why some drugs that you normally use to treat a particular condition no longer works for you when you take them? The diseases you are treating must have developed a defense against such drugs referred to as Drug/Antibiotic resistance. People often ask me how they can tell whether or not they are "resistant" to antibiotics; the answer is that, it is not about humans developing resistance to the drugs/Antibiotics but the Bacteria that causes the diseases

How these bacteria do so is unique. In simple terms, bacteria can develop resistance to an antibiotic by changing it in a way that makes it harmless either by pumping an antibiotic that you have used back outside of the bacteria before it can do any harm or by changing their outer structure so the antibiotic has no way to attach to the bacteria it is designed to kill.

It is worth pointing out that up to half of antibiotics used in humans are unnecessary and inappropriate used.

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The imminent end of the anti-microbial era is a major challenge in public health. Microbes become implicated in various infections and established pathogens reveal new or extended resistance to effective antibiotics thereby making various therapeutic treatments being challenged. However, antimicrobial resistance occurs when microorganisms including bacteria, viruses and parasites change in ways that they render the medications used to cure the infections they cause to be ineffective. Today the number of bacterial strains that are resistant to one or more antibiotics is multiplying at an alarming rate.

According to the Centre for Diseases Control, an estimated 2 million people a year develop infections as a result of hospital care and of those, 70% are resistant to at least one of the antibiotics most commonly used to treat them

This is a major concern as resistance to antimicrobials can kill; cause infections to spread to others and ultimately impose huge health care bills to individuals and the society.

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Antibiotics resistance: How it started

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Antibiotic is probably the most important advances in human health alleviating suffering from diseases and saving billions of lives in the past 70 years since discovery of penicillin. Antimicrobial includes antibiotics, antifungal, chemotherapeutic agents and antiviral medicines. Alexander Fleming (a Scottish physician), in 1943 discovered that penicillin was becoming universally available and totally depended on for healing especially during the era of infected wounds (the biggest killer of US soldiers in World War II). Few years later, strains of bacteria that is capable of defending themselves against penicillin was discovered. Since then, scientists has continued to develop series of different and more powerful antibiotics, but these bacteria keep developing strains which have resistance to these drugs.

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Causes of Antimicrobial Resistance

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Microbial resistance is caused by inappropriate use of sub-standard dose; not finishing a prescribed dose; low quality medicine and wrong prescriptions including poor infectious in our environment. Antibiotic resistance is rising to dangerously high levels in all parts of the world. New resistance mechanisms are emerging and spreading globally, threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases. A growing list of infections – such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, blood poisoning, gonorrhoea, and foodborne diseases – are becoming harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat as antibiotics become less effective.

Recently, the problem of antimicrobial resistance has been attributed to be common in Asia and African continents. Research showed that about 4.15 million deaths will be attributed to Antimicrobial Resistance in Africa by 2050, second only to that of Asia. In Nigeria, the increasing trend of antimicrobial resistance will constitute an impediment to achieving the goal of national health policy and ultimately undermining sustainable health for Nigerians.

1. Overuse

Antibiotic overuse is one reason why many antibiotics develop resistance. People take 235 million doses of antibiotics every year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one third to one half of that use is unnecessary.

Overuse includes taking antibiotics for colds or other viral infections, chronic antibiotic use to prevent infections, and use of antibiotics for minor conditions that will resolve on their own. Doctors often report feeling pressured by worried patients to prescribe antibiotics. It is easier to write a prescription than to take the time to explain why an antibiotic isn't needed, especially in these days of managed care when health care providers are being forced to spend less time in each patient contact.

Health care providers may also not be certain whether an infection is bacterial or viral. Laboratory tests to identify the cause of the infection require extra time, additional expense and often an extra office visit. A situation where anybody can buy antibiotics without prescription from any chemist will increase the occurrences of antimicrobial resistance. In Nigeria, drugs can be purchased from any patent medicine vendor provided it was prescribed by a medical doctor. But approaching public transport buses, street vendors, or unapproved patent medicine shops who hawk adulterated antimicrobial agents is an eyesore.

2. Misuse

It is essential for us to be aware that when bacteria are not exposed to an appropriate and sufficient dose of antibiotics, they develop stronger resistance. One of the easiest way that antibiotics are misused is when you stop taking your antibiotics after feeling better but have not completed the full dose.

3. Agricultural usage

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