Do you know antibiotics are becoming less and less effective and we are responsible for it? They may soon become useless if we continue their misuse.
Before the discovery of antibiotics, people used to die due to some very common illnesses, like diarrhoea, typhoid and pneumonia. Antibiotics have saved millions of lives since 1928 when Sir Alexander Fleming, a Scottish physician and microbiologist discovered Penicillin, the world’s first antibiotic. Antibiotics have truly revolutionized the treatment of bacterial infections. However, currently there’s a substantial threat that due to the extensive use of antibiotics some common bacteria, such as diarrhoea-causing bacteria, which were once easily treated by antibiotics, can become stronger and deadlier. Scientists have identified that several groups of bacteria are developing the ability to defeat antibiotics; such bacteria are called antibiotic-resistant bacteria or superbugs. They are called ‘antibiotic-resistant’ because specific antibiotics can no longer work against them. And this makes the disease caused by such bacteria difficult to treat. What’s even worse is that some of these bacteria have become resistant to multiple types of antibiotics. These ‘multi-drug resistant bacteria‘ are like monster from some sci-fi movie that modern medicine currently has no way to fight with. What is even more dangerous is that superbugs can pass on this property of antibiotic resistance to other types of bacteria and transform them also into superbugs. It will be an underestimation to think that superbugs will only infect us in the future and we have enough time to find a way to combat them.
According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (a United States federal agency) at least 2 million (2,000,000) people get infection by superbugs every year, and at least 23,000 people die every year because of them.
How Bacteria Transform Into Superbugs?
There are mainly two ways by which the bacteria that were once sensitive to antibiotics could become resistant. Bacteria transform to become superbugs by changes in their genes. Some of these changes are spontaneous while some occur when the bacteria are exposed to insufficient amount of antibiotics for a long period of time. Another way in which bacteria acquire antibiotic resistance is when superbugs pass on their genes of antibiotic resistance to these bacteria and transform them into superbugs.
Superbug Infections Are On The Rise- Here’s why?
The main cause of the rapid rise in the cases of superbug infections is the overuse or inappropriate use of antibiotics. Do you know that antibiotics are only for bacterial infections, not for viral infections? Antibiotics cannot cure viral infections, common cold and cough and seasonal flu. But sometimes doctors prescribe antibiotics when you have a viral infection. They do so when they suspect a bacterial infection alongside a viral infection. They may also do so when they see a potential chance of you getting a bacterial infection because viral infections often weaken our immunity against bacterial infections. Having said that, one of the very unfortunate reasons why some doctors prescribe antibiotics in viral infections is because they don’t want to lose their patients. In many cases, patients pressurize their doctor to prescribe antibiotics. In such cases, if the doctor doesn’t prescribe antibiotics, the patient would go to another doctor. And that is because of lack of awareness.
The Dangers of Antibiotic Overuse
If you are overdosing yourself with antibiotics or frequently using the antibiotics when not clinically required, you are potentially creating bacteria that are harder to kill. Other than that, antibiotics may have some serious side effects. Along with killing the disease-causing germs, antibiotics often kill some of the beneficial bacteria living in our gut. And that is why sometimes we suffer from diarrhoea when we are on a course of antibiotics. A weakened or unhealthy microbiota makes us feel sick by compromising our immunity. To know what is microbiota, you can read this blog post.
What Should You Do To Prevent The Spread Of Superbugs?
Here are six little things you could do prevent the spread of superbugs:
- Do not take antibiotics without a doctor’s prescription
- Do not take left-over antibiotics or antibiotics prescribed for someone else. There are 15 different classes of antibiotics and each class can kill only a specific group of bacteria. let your doctor decide which antibiotic you need.
- Do not pressurize your doctor to prescribe antibiotics. Let them decide if you really need an antibiotic treatment. You can always ask your doctor whether you have a bacterial infection or a viral infection and why are they prescribing or not prescribing the antibiotics. Remember you should never be prescribed any antibiotic if you just have a viral infection. No any antibiotics in the world can kill any viruses, they’ll only worsen your illness.
- Always complete the course of antibiotics as prescribed by your doctor. Do not stop taking antibiotics before you finish the whole course even if you feel better. Remember, all infection-causing bacteria need to be killed, otherwise the bacteria might come back stronger with a developed resistance against the antibiotics that you used previously.
- Always maintain good hygiene. Some little sanitation habits like cleaning your surroundings and washing your hands can keep you away from infections, be it a superbug infection or any other kind of infection. It is always a good practice to clean yourself and your clothes after visiting a hospital because hospitals are one of the favourite places of superbugs.
It is our responsibility to prevent the spread of superbugs. Be aware and spread awareness. Also make political parties to include the regulation of antibiotics in their election manifesto. I hope that this post helped you in understanding the dark side of antibiotic overuse and to acknowledge their responsible usage. Other than the reasons discussed herein, a major cause of antibiotic resistance is the misuse of antibiotics in meat and poultry industry. I will be covering that in another blogpost.
