The Menace of Antibiotic Resistance

In the past centuries, many individuals died of different disease conditions ranging from what we sometimes refer to as small cough to as deadly as typhoid disease. This was as a result of the lack of proper medications to tackle the menace of an ever increasing microorganism burden.

In the mid-1900s, man’s first source of hope against these disease-causing micro organisms was discovered with the first antibiotic called penicillin.

Since then, several antibiotics have been developed to combat the equally increasing micro organisms aided by research and discovery of new drugs.

However times are changing and the discovery of new antibiotics to combat the micro organisms has halted due to a number of reasons.

It will be a source of confusion to discuss this topic without first defining what an antibiotic is and what antibiotic resistance also means.

Antibiotics can be defined as chemical substances which are aimed at either slowing the growth and spread of bacteria or summarily killing the target bacteria.

It must be mentioned that antibiotics differ from antivirals and antifungals as these two are targeted at viruses and fungi respectively.

Unfortunately, with the advent and discovery of our life-saver antibiotics has come with the development of what is called antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotic resistance is becoming a global health concern, majorly because when we look back at the pre-antibiotic era and the avoidable deaths that ensued together with the difficulties in getting new antibiotics today, we become scared and everyone should be bothered should a situation result where we no longer have any antibiotic to cater for our health needs.

The last time a new antibiotic was discovered was in the year 1987, resistant strains have developed to previous antibiotics and science has tried its best to manage the resistance, but with the continuous use of antibiotics both properly and improperly, antibiotic resistance will continue to develop. And in our part of the world (largely due to our unhygienic environment), we can’t afford a situation whereby there are no antibiotics available to cater for our health needs.

So it becomes imperative for every stakeholder in the health sector including he patient to contribute to combating antibiotic resistance.

For the purpose of this article, I’ll talk only about how non-healthcare providers i.e patients contribute to antibiotic resistance unknowingly.

There are a number of ways by which we contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance and these are:

• Wrong use of antibiotics: this is a common phenomenon in healthcare settings, most especially in the pharmacies and chemists, where people can walk in and get any antibiotic without a proper prescription. A common example of inappropriate use of antibiotics is when people develop a cold or cough. Statistics show that a great percentage of the cough we have is caused by viruses as opposed to that caused by bacteria. And it will interest you to know that cold caused by viruses are self-limiting meaning that they can resolve on their own without the use of any medication. But a large number of us are of the view that once a cough starts, the first thing to do is to get an antibiotic, in some cases they do not even consider the need to start with a cough syrup before commencing any other drug. When antibiotics are wrongly used, by a process the bacteria present in the body become resistant to it. When this happens, a time comes whereby when there is the appropriate and necessary need of the given antibiotic, the bacteria becomes resistant to it which results in its inefficacy.
• Using the wrong dosage for any antibiotic. This major cause of antibiotic resistance is also quite common amongst people. This results from a situation whereby people use the wrong dosing regimen in terms of frequency of usage and duration of usage. What this causes is; when the antibiotic being used even though it’s appropriate for the disease condition, but is used in the rational way in terms of frequency and completion of treatment course, there’s the likelihood that not all of thes disease-causing microorganism may have been killed or affected by the drug. To aid better understanding of this situation, try to create this image in your mind, imagine a battle field whereby the attacking forces deploy all their tactics at destroying or repelling the enemy forces but somewhere along the line, they retreat without completely dealing with the enemy, the enemy now knows the attacking teams game plan and strength and so can come back with greater force and resistance. This is a very good analogy to explain what happens in antibiotic resistance caused by using wrong dosage or it completing the treatment course. Tangential to this is the common occurrence whereby people who are to use a particular antibiotic opt for the innovator brand which usually are more expensive than others and as such may not be able to afford complete treatment course. An example is when people buy Ampiclox by Beecham which is the innovator product but can’t afford the complete therapy of 20 capsules and so rather opt for 10 capsules or worse less than that number. In a case like this, the individual can buy another brand made by another company but containing similar chemical compounds and as such having similar efficacy.
• Another common cause of antibiotic resistance is as a result of self-prescribing or self-medicating. This is also applicable to other medications. An example is when a friend of yours suffers from a particular infection in the past and used a given antibiotic but you happen to have an infection with slightly similar symptoms, and you decide to use the same antibiotic. Why this is erroneous is because infections can have slightly similar symptoms and also our bodies are different or in another case, you may have used the given antibiotic before and it may have developed resistance, in essence, because you and your friend have similar symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean you are to use the same antibiotic. Related to self-medicating is the act of using any antibiotic you see around you, assuming all antibiotics do the same thing. ALL ANTIBIOTICS DON’T DO THE SAME THING! If you’ve been given an antibiotic before and for some reason you were given more tablets than you are to use, dispose off the remaining, so that neither you nor someone else is made to use it later.
• Lastly, the most common cause of antibiotic resistance globally, accounting for 50% of antibiotic resistance is from antibiotic use in livestock. It is common practice in many livestock farms to inject or orally administer antibiotics for any perceived infection and this contributes to resistance which is also transmittable to humans through our consumption of these livestock.