Top 7 questions about antibiotics and antibiotic resistance
Overview:
Do you know that 700,000 deaths a year due to antibiotics and antibiotic resistance? A large number, right?
That is why we will know more about when to use the antibiotic.
Firstly, there is a big issue in the usage of medicines.
The problem started and aggravated when we start to use antibiotics excessively, especially during the common cold.
1- What are antibiotics?
Antibiotics are medicines that fight or impair the multiplication of bacteria in humans and animals. It kills bacteria and prevents bacteria from growing and multiplying.
It allows the body to strengthen its immunity and eliminate disease-causing bacteria.
We can take antibiotics in different ways:
Oral: It can be in the form of pills, capsules, or liquids.
Topically: It can be a cream, ointment, or spray. It can be an eye ointment, eye drops, or ear drops and injections.
And do not use antibiotics to treat all infections, not anytime, or for all people, and in cases that do not need to necessitate taking these antibiotics, such as respiratory infections.
2- When do we use antibiotics?
We use antibiotics to treat infections caused by bacteria, as they are not efficient against viruses. Most upper respiratory tract infections, such as the common cold, influenza, and sore throats, are caused by a virus.
Sometimes antibiotics are used to prevent infection, but this is recommended by a doctor based on your condition.
3- Can I stop the antibiotic by myself?
The dose of antibiotics prescribed by the doctor must be adhered to, even if you feel better before the days prescribed by the doctor are over.
4- Is a sensitivity test required for an antibiotic injection?
Antibiotic injections must be taken in the hospital after being prescribed by the specialist doctor after conducting an allergy test, and you should never use them on your own.
5- What is antibiotic resistance?
Excessive use of antibiotics, and for long periods, makes the bacteria resistant and not affected by the antibiotic, so they begin to multiply and increase the duration of the disease and may lead to death.
6- What are the causes of antibiotic resistance?
Antibiotics and antifungals kill some infection-causing germs, but they also kill beneficial germs that protect our bodies from infection.
Antimicrobial-resistant germs live and multiply. The remaining germs have resistant traits in their DNA that can spread to other germs.
The causes of antibiotic resistance are:
1- The wrong usage of antibiotics
When a doctor prescribes treatment many times, as soon as we feel better, we stop the treatment before the time that the doctor specified.
2- Wrong overuse of antibiotics
It happens when we use antibiotics in sick cases that do not need an antibiotic for treatment, such as infections caused by viruses. In this case, the health condition will not improve.
According to the World Health Organization, “We will be in a world in which one of us dies every three seconds due to a trivial infection, disease, or injury, and deaths resulting from antibiotic resistance will become more than deaths from cancer.”
That is why we must take care of the correct use of antibiotics.
3- Causes related to the bacteria
The bacteria in the body may have genetic mutations and multiply in a way that resists antibiotics and becomes inefficient.
Or gene transfer that bacteria do not need to reproduce to pass on their genetic protection against antibiotics. But can pass it on between different species.
Phenotype, Bacteria can change some of their properties. Therefore they become resistant to common antibiotics.
7- What are the risks of the misuse of antibiotics?
- Lead to chronic health problems
- Increased cases of fatal diarrhea in children due to the antibiotics for upper respiratory infections make them more vulnerable to infection with a strain of aggressive bacteria called (Clostridium difficile). It is resistant to antibiotics, which causes severe diarrhea, and it is responsible for 250,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths every year between children and adults.
- Disturb the balance of beneficial bacteria in the intestine: which strengthens immunity and helps in proper digestion, as many antibiotics kill beneficial bacteria and disturb the system inside the intestine.
- Imbalance of beneficial bacteria in the intestine
- High rates of health complications of infections, and mortality rates
- Recurrence of infection or return of symptoms after treatment.
- Increased duration of treatment or hospital stay.
- Help bacteria develop their defense methods and increase the incidence of non-treatable diseases.
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