Answer:
Antibiotic resistance: Bacteria fighting for existence
Antimicrobial resistance has drawn significant attention in the contemporary era as a major public health issue. Almost all parts of the globe are facing this challenge, and it has been noted that the reduced ability of individuals to fight against infectious diseases is of key concern for public health departments.
The term antimicrobial refers to antibiotic, antiviral, antifungal and antiprotozoal medicines. Among these, antibiotic resistance is of more prominence that occurs under conditions when the organisms causing infection are able to survive exposure to a medicine normally that is normally capable of killing them of stopping the growth of the same. Resistance is a biological phenomenon that is accelerated through different factors such as poor infection control practices and global travel and trade. A number of medical treatments in recent years, such as cancer chemotherapy and organ transplantation, require proper functioning of antibiotics for prevention and treatment of bacterial infections that are commonly caused by this treatment https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/antimicrobial-resistance-amr-information-and-resources/
Research indicates that antibiotics, unlike other drugs, becomes less useful with increased use against target organism. Inappropriate and overuse of anitbiotics allows the organisms to develop resistance against the drugs. Antibiotic consumption had increased significantly in the past 4 years by 6.5% in England, as reported in 2015. Prescribing increased from 21.6 DDD per 1,000 inhabitants per day in England in 2011 to 23 DDD per 1,000 inhabitants per day in 2014
The illustration provided below reflects on how individuals, and the environment around contribute to the increase of antibacteria resistance. Research highlights that they have the capability to spread between animals and people, as well as from person to person. Insufficient sanitary conditions, improper infection control and ineffective food handling techniques are all responsible for encouraging the spread of antibiotic resistance.
In the year 2016, the UN arranged a special meeting of the General Assembly for discussing the health issue. This was considered as antibiotic resistance was perceived as a crisis rising to a ‘high level’. The need of addressing antibiotic resistance has been felt across domains as it is clear that the frequency of antibiotic resistant infections is on the rise. In May 2015, the Sixty-eight World Health Assembly was held, where a distinct global action plan was outlined by the World Health Assembly for handling antimicrobial resistance, especially antibiotic resistance which is the more crucial drug-resistance trend (Inoue and Minghui 2017). The goal has been to ensure the permanence of successful treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. The five strategies that have been outlined for achieving the goal are as follows:
- Improvement of understanding and awareness of antimicrobial resistance
- Reduction of infection incidence
- Strengthening of knowledge through research and surveillance
- Optimisation of the use of antimicrobial agents
- Development of economic cases of sustainable investment in novice vaccines, diagnostic tools, medicines and other interventions
Coming to the end of this informative piece, it can be stated that the problem of antibiotic resistance is not confined to particular areas of the world. Rather, it has affected lives of individuals in all regions of the globe. Policy makers need to come forward to bring modifications in policies wherever needed. A call to action has to be issued for making antibiotic resistance a priority in research and practice. Governments of different countries must join hand to make the fight against antibiotic resistance a success (Soommer et al. 2017).
References
Cdc.gov. (2018). Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2013 | Antibiotic/Antimicrobial Resistance | CDC. [online] Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/threat-report-2013/ [Accessed 15 Jan. 2018].
Gov.uk. (2018). Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) – GOV.UK. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/antimicrobial-resistance-amr-information-and-resources [Accessed 15 Jan. 2018].
Gov.uk. (2018). Health matters: antimicrobial resistance – GOV.UK. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-antimicrobial-resistance/health-matters-antimicrobial-resistance [Accessed 15 Jan. 2018].
Inoue, H. and Minghui, R., 2017. Antimicrobial resistance: translating political commitment into national action. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 95(4), p.242.
Rqhealth.ca. (2018). Why is the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program Important?. [online] Available at: https://www.rqhealth.ca/department/antimicrobial-stewardship-program/why-is-the-antimicrobial-stewardship-program-important [Accessed 15 Jan. 2018].
Sommer, M.O., Munck, C., Toft-Kehler, R.V. and Andersson, D.I., 2017. Prediction of antibiotic resistance: time for a new preclinical paradigm?. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 15(11), p.689.
