2024-07-24 17:24:49
When we talk about the diseases that kill the most in the world, it is common to think of cancer, heart or lung problems. But, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), we have a new problem: antibiotic resistance.
It is estimated that from 2050, antibiotic-resistant bacteria will kill at least 10 million people a year, a number higher than the current number of deaths from cancer.
Superbugs: what is antibiotic resistance?
- Resistance is acquired through the inappropriate use of antibiotics and can be extended to animal and agricultural production;
- It is a serious and global health problem, which occurs when bacteria are not eliminated during treatment due to genetic mutations that confer resistance;
- Among the most susceptible places are hospitals, in intensive care units (ICUs), but it can also occur during home treatments;
- The medicines mentioned by the WHO are antimicrobials, including antibiotics, but they can also be antiviral, antifungal and anti-parasitic.
Image: shutterstock
Some of the most common, when used inappropriately or excessively, are: quinolones, cephalosporins, penicillin, macrolides and tetracyclines. In addition, other less common antibiotics may contribute to the selection of more resistant bacteria.
Resistance harms global health and pharmacoeconomics
According to Dr. Fernando Henrique Gonçalves, intensive care doctor at VITA Hospital, the health risks are great.
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is one of the most relevant public health problems at the moment, since many bacteria, which were previously vulnerable to commonly used antibiotics, no longer respond to these same agents. Antibiotic resistance is responsible for serious clinical and economic consequences, associated with increased morbidity and mortality due to the delay in the administration of effective treatments against infections caused by resistant bacteria.
Dr Fernando Henrique Gonçalves, intensive care doctor at VITA Hospital.
Read more!
In addition to worsening the infectious situation, the resistance endangers the treatment of infections caused by viruses, parasites, fungi and other diseases and is a negative factor even in advanced procedures, such as chemotherapy or organ transplantation.
Another sector that is affected by resistance is the economic sector, as once the patient is hospitalized and does not respond to antibiotics, the amount spent on medicines, and hospital costs, tend to increase.
Prolonged hospitalization and the use of antibiotics other than first-line antibiotics greatly increase healthcare costs, which is a particularly relevant problem, considering the limited resources that support healthcare systems.
Image: shutterstock/askarim
How to identify antibiotic resistance?
Knowing the resistance of the bacteria can allow the treatment to be assertive, improving the health of the person, as well as reducing hospital time and spending on ineffective medications.
It is important to be aware that some patients, especially those who are hospitalized or recently admitted, may be colonized with multi-resistant bacteria, without necessarily meaning that they have an infection. But the importance of determining whether this type of colonization has an impact on contact isolation measures, for example, to avoid cross-infection in the hospital environment.
Determining whether bacteria are multidrug resistant or not is critical to the outcome of treatment. There are research methods to determine the degree of this resistance, some of these tests are simpler, but others require more sophisticated methods according to the molecular basis of bacterial resistance, including genetic analysis.
Dr. Fernando Henrique Gonçalves.
Is there a way to prevent resistance?
More than ten years ago, the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) decided that antimicrobials can only be sold with a medical prescription in Brazil. This action is a way to ensure that these medicines are only used to treat bacterial infections diagnosed by a healthcare professional, prevent self-medication and the use of these medicines to treat viral infections, for example, simple flu.
Other measures include:
- Avoid self-medication;
- Carry out the correct treatment, even if there is an improvement before the end of the cycle, because this guarantees the effectiveness of the treatment;
- Limiting the consumption of antibiotics in veterinary practice and animal production, activities that are responsible for the insufficient consumption of many antibiotics.
#estimates #superbugs #kill #cancer