Introduction
Antibiotics are medicines won’t to prevent and treat bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in response to the utilization of those medicines.
Bacteria, not humans or animals, become antibiotic-resistant. These bacteria may infect humans and animals, and therefore the infections they cause are harder to treat than those caused by non-resistant bacteria. Antibiotic resistance results in higher medical costs, prolonged hospital stays, and increased mortality.
The world urgently must change the way it prescribes and uses antibiotics. albeit new medicines are developed, without behaviour change, antibiotic resistance will remain a serious threat. Behaviour changes must also include actions to scale back the spread of infections through vaccination, hand washing, practising safer sex, and good food hygiene.
Scope of the matter
Antibiotic resistance is rising to dangerously high levels altogether parts of the planet . New resistance mechanisms are emerging and spreading globally, threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases. A growing list of infections – like pneumonia, tuberculosis, septicemia , gonorrhoea, and foodborne diseases – are getting harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat as antibiotics subsided effective.
Where antibiotics are often bought for human or animal use without a prescription, the emergence and spread of resistance is formed worse. Similarly, in countries without standard treatment guidelines, antibiotics are often over-prescribed by doctors and veterinarians and over-used by the general public.
Without urgent action, we are heading for a post-antibiotic era, during which common infections and minor injuries can once more kill.
Prevention and control
Antibiotic resistance is accelerated by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics, also as poor infection prevention and control. Steps are often taken in the least levels of society to scale back the impact and limit the spread of resistance.
Individuals
To prevent and control the spread of antibiotic resistance, individuals can:
Ø Only use antibiotics when prescribed by a licensed health care provider .
Ø Never demand antibiotics if your doctor says you don’t need them.
Ø Always follow your health worker’s advice when using antibiotics.
Ø Never share or use leftover antibiotics.
Ø Prevent infections by regularly washing hands, preparing food hygienically, avoiding close contact with sick people, practising safer sex, and keeping vaccinations up so far .
Ø Prepare food hygienically, following the WHO Five Keys to Safer Food (keep clean, separate raw and cooked, cook thoroughly, keep food at safe temperatures, use safe water and raw materials) and choose foods that are produced without the utilization of antibiotics for growth promotion or disease prevention in healthy animals.
Policy makers
To prevent and control the spread of antibiotic resistance, policy makers can:
Ø Ensure a strong national action decide to tackle antibiotic resistance is in situ .
Ø Improve surveillance of antibiotic-resistant infections.
Ø Strengthen policies, programmes, and implementation of infection prevention and control measures.
Ø Regulate and promote the acceptable use and disposal of quality medicines.
Ø Make information available on the impact of antibiotic resistance.
Health professionals
To prevent and control the spread of antibiotic resistance, health professionals can:
Ø Prevent infections by ensuring your hands, instruments, and environment are clean.
Ø Only prescribe and dispense antibiotics once they are needed, consistent with current guidelines.
Ø Report antibiotic-resistant infections to surveillance teams.
Ø Talk to your patients about the way to take antibiotics correctly, antibiotic resistance and therefore the dangers of misuse.
Ø Talk to your patients about preventing infections (for example, vaccination, hand washing, safer sex, and covering nose and mouth when sneezing).
Healthcare industry
To prevent and control the spread of antibiotic resistance, the health industry can:
Ø Invest in research and development of latest antibiotics, vaccines, diagnostics and other tools.
Agriculture sector
To prevent and control the spread of antibiotic resistance, the agriculture sector can:
Ø Only give antibiotics to animals under veterinary supervision.
Ø Not use antibiotics for growth promotion or to stop diseases in healthy animals.
Ø Vaccinate animals to scale back the necessity for antibiotics and use alternatives to antibiotics when available.
Ø Promote and apply good practices in the least steps of production and processing of foods from animal and plant sources.
Ø Improve biosecurity on farms and stop infections through improved hygiene and animal welfare.
Recent developments
While there are some new antibiotics in development, none of them are expected to be effective against the foremost dangerous sorts of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Given the convenience and frequency with which individuals now travel, antibiotic resistance may be a global problem, requiring efforts from all nations and lots of sectors.
Impact
When infections cannot be treated by first-line antibiotics, costlier medicines must be used. a extended duration of illness and treatment, often in hospitals, increases health care costs also because the economic burden on families and societies. Antibiotic resistance is putting the achievements of recent medicine in danger . Organ transplantations, chemotherapy and surgeries like caesarean sections become far more dangerous without effective antibiotics for the prevention and treatment of infections.
WHO response
Tackling antibiotic resistance may be a high priority for WHO. a worldwide action plan on antimicrobial resistance, including antibiotic resistance, was endorsed at the planet Health Assembly in May 2015. the worldwide action plan aims to make sure prevention and treatment of infectious diseases with safe and effective medicines.
The “Global action plan on antimicrobial resistance” has 5 strategic objectives:
Ø To improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance.
Ø To strengthen surveillance and research.
Ø To reduce the incidence of infection.
Ø To optimize the utilization of antimicrobial medicines.
Ø To ensure sustainable investment in countering antimicrobial resistance.
Notice: Please consult your doctor before following any instruction of www.myonlinedoctor.co.in