The increase in antibiotic resistance parallels the increase in antibiotic use in humans. And antibiotic resistance is spreading fast! There are two reasons for it: a) the increase in infection transmission and b) inappropriate antibiotic use.
If a bacterial pathogen is able to develop resistance to an antibiotic, the substance becomes useless in the treatment of an infectious disease caused by that pathogen. That means we always have to develop new antibiotics not only against ‘old’ diseases but also against new bacterial diseases which we did not know several decades ago, like Legionnaire’s disease, gastric ulcers, Lyme disease and skin eating Streptococci.
ANTIBIOTICS are substances mostly produced by micro organisms that kill or inhibit other micro organisms. They are soil products and a by-product of secondary cellular metabolism.
The very first antibiotic, penicillin, discovered 1929 by Alexander Fleming inhibited the growth of staphylococci by a mould called Penicillium. Marketed in 1946, penicillin was used against infections caused by staphylococci and streptococci and was extremely successful against strep throat, pneumonia, septicaemia, skin and wound infections, scarlet fever and toxic shock syndrome. It had the ability to kill the bacterial pathogens without harming the host.
The first drug-resistance to penicillin in some strains of these bacteria was observed immediately after the introduction of the drug. Nowadays the resistance to penicillin happens in 80% of all strains of Staphylococcus aureus.
In the late 40s and 50s streptomycin, chloramphenicol and tetracycline was discovered and it was the age of antibiotic chemotherapy. These antibiotics were successful against many bacterial pathogens and even some intracellular parasites.
Some bacteria always showed an inherent (natural) resistance to certain antibiotics, others which previously were sensitive to antibiotics can develop a resistance. This mostly happens through HORIZONTAL EVOLUTION: the acquisition of genes for resistance from another organism. This happens in nature through conjugation, transduction and transformation.
More people are contracting infections. Sinusitis among adults and ear infections among children is on the rise. Why? Doctors prescribed always antibiotics to treat these infections, although most of the times the illness is viral and antibiotics do NOT work against a virus.
Of course some people clearly need to be treated with antibiotics but the majority of experts are concerned about the inappropriate use of these powerful drugs.
Other factors of resistance: increased use of day-care facilities, immunosuppressant drugs during chemotherapy and organ transplants, breakdown in public health measures (closing down of hospitals, reduction in prevention programmes, ready-meals in hospitals) and antibiotic use in livestock.
Another very important factor in drug resistance is that patients often stop taking the drug too soon, because symptoms improve. This is the most typical way to create drug resistance. If the infection returns a few weeks later, a different drug must be used for treatment.
We have now reached the dangerous point where bacteria show increased resistance against Vancomycin, the last drug which works against hospital-acquired staph infections (first reported in 1987).
