What are Antibiotics & Antibiotic Resistance?

The time may come when penicillin can be purchased from any store. Then there is the risk that with ignorance man can subject himself to low doses, exposing the germs to non-lethal amounts of the drug, making them more durable. An excerpt from Alexander Fleming's Nobel Prize speech in 1945. Alexander Fleming was the physician who discovered the first antibiotic - penicillin.

Antibiotic Resistance description by Dr. Muhammad Akram, Dr. Ali Hussain, Usama Mujahid

What are Antibiotics?

Let's start with the basic question… What exactly are Antibiotics?

Antibiotics are vital drugs produced by microorganisms (now most of them are synthetic) that help destroy or inhibit the growth of other microorganisms. They are used to treat bacterial infections but without the ability to cure viral infections.

In what cases should Antibiotics be used?

Antibiotics should be used to treat bacterial infections such as:

• Many of the respiratory infections
• Streptococcus
• Urinary tract infections
• Pneumonia
• Most of the ear infections
• Bad bacterial skin infections

Antibiotics have no effect and should not be used for viral infections such as:

• Cold
• Influenza
• Bronchitis
• Some cases of cough
• Some ear infections
• Some respiratory infections
• Stomach virus

If you have a viral infection and are taking antibiotics, they will attack bacteria in your body that are potentially beneficial, including those in the intestines, which do not cause disease. This is one of the reasons for antibiotic resistance. One-fifth of antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary! Coughing or bronchitis can take two to three weeks to clear up on their own. Using antibiotics can reduce the treatment time to just one or two days, no more. An estimated 5,000 people die in the UK each year as a result of drug-resistant infections.

Statistics show that if the use of antibiotics worldwide continues to be the same in the coming years, by 2050 more people will die from antibiotic resistance than from cancer.

What do we mean when we say "Antibiotic Resistance"?

Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria develop immunity and prevent the action of antibiotics originally designed to kill them. Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, so instead of destroying them or preventing them from growing, they in turn multiply. Antibiotic resistance is a huge barrier to treating bacterial infections.

How is antibiotic resistance created?

An important reason for the development of this antibiotic resistance is that it evolves through natural selection through random mutation. This means that some bacteria mutate and carry resistance genes that allow them to survive and reproduce. In this way this feature will be passed on to the offspring thus developing a fully resilient generation.

Other important factors that lead to antimicrobial resistance are:

• Misdiagnosis and over-prescription of antibiotics
• Patients do not complete the medication
• The use of antibiotics in animals as a dietary supplement to promote growth
• Poor hygiene and incorrect or lack of infection control in hospitals

Antibiotic  resisance is the ability of microbes and other microorganism to resist the  effect of antiotic to which they are too much sensitive.Vetrinary  practitioners face many problem in prevention of  antibiotic resistance as

 Over or  misuse of antibiotic  in  animals..

 The  course of antibiotic is not complete for 3-5 days..

 The incomplete concentration of antibiotic in  available medicine.

 Use of antibiotic  as  Growth  promoters.

 Absence of new antibiotic discovery.

 Lack of development and implementation  of national awareness –raising  .

 Lack  of establishment of an  integrated national antimicrobial resistance surveillance system.

Out of 137 million people in the  country ,92million live in rural areas,they keep  a huge number of  animals.Whenever their animals became ill, they treat their animals  themselves and use  antibiotic  according  to their empirical knowledge.When the animal  condition  is dreadful,  complicated and out of their hands then they concern a veterinarians.Many   owners who keep fancy  birds and others birds  in  home.In the start of  every month they prophylactically  give   antibiotics to their birds that develop antibiotics resistance in birds.

            Many rich families have pets ,they visit pet practitioners whenever their pets are  ill and inactive.doctor recommend the antibiotic course for 3-5 days if disease is develop due to bacterial infection.After one or two days treatment, their pets become active and they stop antibiotic course that develop resistance in pets.

            One of the major problem is encountered by veterinarians in Pakisstan is incomplete drug concentration in medicine,that why they use double dose of drug to treat iinfecton as result antibiotic resistance develop in animals.

            Antibiotics  at low doses use as a growth promoters in poutry industry for the purpose of to increase weight gain,increase feed conversion ratio, increase egg production but it  develop antibiotic resistance and  produce antibiotics resistance bacteria in bacterial population.

             We are already  using invented science but we do not invent something new like many becteria develop resistance against antibiotics as pencilline and others class of antibiotics because of limited  antibiotic usage on bacteria and also transferred in next generation through multiplication.

     We can overcome this problem by following precaution as:

• Conduct seminar by which awareness is given to the farmers o the use of antibiotics in  animals by veterinarian prescription.
• Veterinarians  should use those drug which have complete concentration as recommended .
• Always iinject the recommended dose of  drug at proper route.
• Rrecommended  the use off pre and pro biotics as growth promoters in aanimals instead of antibiotics .
• Never use antibiotics in fancy birds as prophylactic can avoid the antimicrobial resistance.
• Develop  new antibiotics against  mmicrobes  .
• We should establish an integral national antimicrobials resistance surveillance system to avoid antibiotic resistance problems.