Antibiotics are regarded as miracle drugs.
They are our most effective weapons against infectious diseases brought about by microorganisms.
However, many bacteria are now able to resist the effects of antimicrobial agents.
Antibacterial resistance is the ability of bacteria to withstand and overcome attacks by antibiotics.
Increases in resistant bacterial strains are threatening to human health.
In fact, such problem is wasting an already limited health care resource, (WHO).
Antibiotics are medications used in the treatment of infections caused by bacteria, fungi, and parasites.
In the past, treating bacterial infections was very difficult.
In fact, before the discovery of antibiotics, many patients contracting bacterial infections never made it out of hospital beds alive.
This is why the discovery of antibiotics was one of the most important health advances in human history, (WHO).
The over prescribing, increase use, and misuse of antibiotics in the past 70 years has opened the flood gates to an increasing number of microbes that are resistant to antimicrobials, resulting in death, incredible suffering, disability, and a marked increase in health care expenditures according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
There has to be a solution to the rapid increase in antimicrobial resistant microorganisms.
According to the WHO, there are two main factors responsible for the proliferation and spread of resistant microorganisms.
Those two factors are overuse and misuse of antibiotics, and the spread of resistant organisms among people, communities, and countries.
As a result of these findings, aggressive and proactive interventions are necessary in the two areas mentioned.
The World Health Organization has identified the two areas needing interventions.
Those two areas are improving antimicrobial use and blocking transmission of resistant organisms.
Health care providers should refrain from over prescribing antibiotics to patients who may otherwise not need such treatments.
Physicians should limit the amounts of broad-spectrum antibiotics prescribed.
A Recent study found that physicians are very quick to prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics to treat infections of unknown origins.
This is like treating infections blindly.
Treating infections without knowing the kind of bacteria present is causing antibiotic resistant bacteria to be on the rise.
The study found that doing so actually increases the resistance of microorganisms that are not the target organism being sought after or the organism responsible for causing a specific infection.
Therefore, special care should be taken when ordering bacteria-specific antimicrobial agents to treat specific infections.
Treat with the narrow-spectrum in mind; don't overdo it.
In fact, antimicrobial treatments should be rendered only as a last resort.
Before doctors order or prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics, they should get antibiotic-specific test results from the microbiology lab.
The micro lab tests for bacterial sensitivities to specific antibiotics.
So, physicians should not give any antibiotics before they get results from the micro lab, even if it is broad-spectrum.
At the present time, many health care providers are giving broad-spectrum antibiotics before results arrive from the microbiology laboratory, not a very good practice for the containment of antimicrobial resistant organisms (Killer Super Bugs).
Many patients are misusing antimicrobial agents on a large scale.
Some take it for the common cold and other ailments not warranting antibacterial treatments.
A study conducted by the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) found that patients were a significant source of resistant organisms.
The IDSA study also found that patients are willing to take antibiotics for conditions that are viral in nature and not related to bacterial infections, such as the common cold, flu, sore throat, cough, or earache.
Not only that, the study discovered that a small percent of patients will save part of the antibiotic course for future use, further adding resistant microorganism to their bodies.
According to a University of Tennessee study, researchers Sandra R Arnold and Sharon E Straus found that resistance to antimicrobial agents by many human pathogens has been linked to excessive use of antibiotics.
The researchers said that the misuse of antibiotics for viral infections and the excessive use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in the place of narrower-spectrum antibiotics are well-known throughout the world.
So, there is no secret that this is happening.
Similar studies have found that some countries allow over-the-counter sale of antibiotics, actions that should be forbidden because it helps the spread of antibiotic resistant microorganisms, (IDSA).
Researchers at the University of Antwerp (UA) Belgium found that countries with higher rates of antibiotic prescriptions have higher rates of antibiotic resistance.
This confirms the argument that high rates of antibiotic prescriptions and excessive use increases the rate of development of antibiotic resistant organisms causing infections that are difficult to treat.
An alarming study found that farm animals are being fed antibiotics, the same antibiotics that are prescribed to humans.
According to studies done by The Department of Agriculture in 1999, 2001, and 2006, over 80 percent of pig farms, cattle feedlots, and sheep farms administer antibiotics at low doses for non-therapeutic reasons (non disease treatment) and that most of the antibiotics used on animals are identical or very closely related to those used to prevent diseases or infections in humans.
These antibiotics are tetracyclines, marcolides, bacitracin, penicillins, and sulfonamides.
Bacteria in animals and in humans are able to develop resistance to antibiotics when exposed to low doses of antimicrobial agents over a long period of time, which contributes greatly to the rise of pathogens that are able to defeat both human and animal defenses, said the study.
For several years scientific studies have confirmed that the use of antibiotics in farm animals contributes greatly to the overall development of antibiotic resistant bacteria in humans, {Center for Global Development (CGD)}.
After an extensive investigation about the practice of feeding farm animals antibiotics, the World Health Organization concluded that the practice of using antibiotics as growth promoters in animal feeds should be stopped.
The WHO concluded that such practice should be discontinued because resistant bacteria found in animals as a result of exposure to antibiotic can also be transmitted to humans through the consumption of meat, from close or direct contact with animals, or through the environment, (CGD).
A study by researchers of The Economist found that pigs were carriers of MRSA, which can be passed on to humans either through eating meats infected with bacteria, skin to skin contact, or touching animal contaminated surfaces.
Disease conditions that have been developed as a consequence of antibacterial resistant organisms are Methicillin-resistance Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an infectious disease caused by the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria found on the skin of humans.
It is resistant to the antibiotic Methicillin.
It causes havoc when it gets into the blood stream of human causing sepsis, very deadly.
Unsterile surgical instruments and procedures are usually the culprit for causing the bacteria to enter the body.
A very large percent of MRSA is found in post surgical patients.
A deadly resistant form of TB called extremely drug-resistant (XXDR) TB that has never been seen before in the U.
S.
has recently been discovered in a patient, (AP).
According to a recent Associated Press (AP) study, TB, malaria, and HIV are mutating at an extremely fast rate, traveling in and out of countries, and the main reason is the overuse and misuse of the very drugs that were developed to eradicate these infectious microbes.
Drug resistance is a major road block to the successful treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, the three diseases needing urgent actions in developing countries, (CDG).
They are our most effective weapons against infectious diseases brought about by microorganisms.
However, many bacteria are now able to resist the effects of antimicrobial agents.
Antibacterial resistance is the ability of bacteria to withstand and overcome attacks by antibiotics.
Increases in resistant bacterial strains are threatening to human health.
In fact, such problem is wasting an already limited health care resource, (WHO).
Antibiotics are medications used in the treatment of infections caused by bacteria, fungi, and parasites.
In the past, treating bacterial infections was very difficult.
In fact, before the discovery of antibiotics, many patients contracting bacterial infections never made it out of hospital beds alive.
This is why the discovery of antibiotics was one of the most important health advances in human history, (WHO).
The over prescribing, increase use, and misuse of antibiotics in the past 70 years has opened the flood gates to an increasing number of microbes that are resistant to antimicrobials, resulting in death, incredible suffering, disability, and a marked increase in health care expenditures according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
There has to be a solution to the rapid increase in antimicrobial resistant microorganisms.
According to the WHO, there are two main factors responsible for the proliferation and spread of resistant microorganisms.
Those two factors are overuse and misuse of antibiotics, and the spread of resistant organisms among people, communities, and countries.
As a result of these findings, aggressive and proactive interventions are necessary in the two areas mentioned.
The World Health Organization has identified the two areas needing interventions.
Those two areas are improving antimicrobial use and blocking transmission of resistant organisms.
Health care providers should refrain from over prescribing antibiotics to patients who may otherwise not need such treatments.
Physicians should limit the amounts of broad-spectrum antibiotics prescribed.
A Recent study found that physicians are very quick to prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics to treat infections of unknown origins.
This is like treating infections blindly.
Treating infections without knowing the kind of bacteria present is causing antibiotic resistant bacteria to be on the rise.
The study found that doing so actually increases the resistance of microorganisms that are not the target organism being sought after or the organism responsible for causing a specific infection.
Therefore, special care should be taken when ordering bacteria-specific antimicrobial agents to treat specific infections.
Treat with the narrow-spectrum in mind; don't overdo it.
In fact, antimicrobial treatments should be rendered only as a last resort.
Before doctors order or prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics, they should get antibiotic-specific test results from the microbiology lab.
The micro lab tests for bacterial sensitivities to specific antibiotics.
So, physicians should not give any antibiotics before they get results from the micro lab, even if it is broad-spectrum.
At the present time, many health care providers are giving broad-spectrum antibiotics before results arrive from the microbiology laboratory, not a very good practice for the containment of antimicrobial resistant organisms (Killer Super Bugs).
Many patients are misusing antimicrobial agents on a large scale.
Some take it for the common cold and other ailments not warranting antibacterial treatments.
A study conducted by the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) found that patients were a significant source of resistant organisms.
The IDSA study also found that patients are willing to take antibiotics for conditions that are viral in nature and not related to bacterial infections, such as the common cold, flu, sore throat, cough, or earache.
Not only that, the study discovered that a small percent of patients will save part of the antibiotic course for future use, further adding resistant microorganism to their bodies.
According to a University of Tennessee study, researchers Sandra R Arnold and Sharon E Straus found that resistance to antimicrobial agents by many human pathogens has been linked to excessive use of antibiotics.
The researchers said that the misuse of antibiotics for viral infections and the excessive use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in the place of narrower-spectrum antibiotics are well-known throughout the world.
So, there is no secret that this is happening.
Similar studies have found that some countries allow over-the-counter sale of antibiotics, actions that should be forbidden because it helps the spread of antibiotic resistant microorganisms, (IDSA).
Researchers at the University of Antwerp (UA) Belgium found that countries with higher rates of antibiotic prescriptions have higher rates of antibiotic resistance.
This confirms the argument that high rates of antibiotic prescriptions and excessive use increases the rate of development of antibiotic resistant organisms causing infections that are difficult to treat.
An alarming study found that farm animals are being fed antibiotics, the same antibiotics that are prescribed to humans.
According to studies done by The Department of Agriculture in 1999, 2001, and 2006, over 80 percent of pig farms, cattle feedlots, and sheep farms administer antibiotics at low doses for non-therapeutic reasons (non disease treatment) and that most of the antibiotics used on animals are identical or very closely related to those used to prevent diseases or infections in humans.
These antibiotics are tetracyclines, marcolides, bacitracin, penicillins, and sulfonamides.
Bacteria in animals and in humans are able to develop resistance to antibiotics when exposed to low doses of antimicrobial agents over a long period of time, which contributes greatly to the rise of pathogens that are able to defeat both human and animal defenses, said the study.
For several years scientific studies have confirmed that the use of antibiotics in farm animals contributes greatly to the overall development of antibiotic resistant bacteria in humans, {Center for Global Development (CGD)}.
After an extensive investigation about the practice of feeding farm animals antibiotics, the World Health Organization concluded that the practice of using antibiotics as growth promoters in animal feeds should be stopped.
The WHO concluded that such practice should be discontinued because resistant bacteria found in animals as a result of exposure to antibiotic can also be transmitted to humans through the consumption of meat, from close or direct contact with animals, or through the environment, (CGD).
A study by researchers of The Economist found that pigs were carriers of MRSA, which can be passed on to humans either through eating meats infected with bacteria, skin to skin contact, or touching animal contaminated surfaces.
Disease conditions that have been developed as a consequence of antibacterial resistant organisms are Methicillin-resistance Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an infectious disease caused by the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria found on the skin of humans.
It is resistant to the antibiotic Methicillin.
It causes havoc when it gets into the blood stream of human causing sepsis, very deadly.
Unsterile surgical instruments and procedures are usually the culprit for causing the bacteria to enter the body.
A very large percent of MRSA is found in post surgical patients.
A deadly resistant form of TB called extremely drug-resistant (XXDR) TB that has never been seen before in the U.
S.
has recently been discovered in a patient, (AP).
According to a recent Associated Press (AP) study, TB, malaria, and HIV are mutating at an extremely fast rate, traveling in and out of countries, and the main reason is the overuse and misuse of the very drugs that were developed to eradicate these infectious microbes.
Drug resistance is a major road block to the successful treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, the three diseases needing urgent actions in developing countries, (CDG).