Infections that our bodies are good at fighting off on their own, like coughs, colds, sore throats and flu, should be treated without antibiotics most of the time - just get plenty of rest and keep well hydrated. However, antibiotics are needed for serious bacterial infections, such as sepsis, pneumonia, urinary tract infection (UTI), sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and meningococcal meningitis.
Antibiotic (or antimicrobial) resistance
Unfortunately, the overuse of antibiotics in recent years has meant that they are becoming less effective. This has led to the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is when the microorganisms that cause disease are no longer affected by antomicrobial medicines such as antibiotics, that we use to kill them. This has led to the rise of "superbugs". These are strains of bacteria that have developed resistance to many different types of antibiotic. Anitbiotic resistance is accelerated by:
- Inappropriate use of available anibiotic medicines
- poor infection, prevention and control
- a lack of medicines being developed to tackle emerging 'superbugs'
- insufficient glabal surveillnace of infection rates
It is important that we tackle antibiotic resistance
We rely on antibiotics, antifungals, and antiparisites to treat the microorganisms that cause many common diseases, such as tuberculosis (TB), HIV / AIDS, malaria, sexually transmitted infections, urinary tract infections, chest infections, bloodstream infections and food poisoning. These microorganisms, however, can already resist a wide range of antimicrobial medicines.
There are few replacement antibiotics or alternative products in development, and even fewer which target specific super resistant bacterium, virus, or other microorganisms. This is partly due to how new drug development is funded.
As resistance continues to increase, more people will suffer for longer as infections become more difficult to treat – resulting in longer hospital admissions, routine surgical procedures becoming more dangerous to perform, and higher death rates. The impact of abtibiotic resistance therefore has a detrimental effect on the working of modern medicine and can and will affect each and every one of us.
Read more about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and what the NHS is doing to try to address it. You can also watch the short video below developed by the UK Health Security Agency that explains a little more about antimicrobial resistance.