Antimicrobial Resistance – Everything You Need to Know

Microbes like fungi and bacteria are responsible for just about every common infection, ranging from flus to stomach viruses. They evolve over time and their primary function is to reproduce and spread quickly and efficiently—all the while causing mayhem in our bodies. They evolve to adapt to their environment and ensure they survive any combating efforts like antibiotics.

What Is Antimicrobial Resistance?

This term is used to describe the event where disease causing microbes evolve over time and no longer respond to medication. When microbes like bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses become drug resistant, infections are much harder to treat and the risk of disease spread increases. 

Moreover, the severity of the illness escalates—sometimes to the point of death. The eventuality is infections being extremely difficult to treat, or impossible altogether. 

Causes of Resistance

Antibiotic Overuse

The prevalence of resistant microbes is greatly enhanced by the inappropriate use of antimicrobials. 

Sometimes, medical practitioners make the mistake of inappropriately prescribing antimicrobials only to appease patients demanding so because they have incessant infections. Antimicrobials can also be wrongly prescribed before a diagnosis is actually made.

As such, healthcare providers should exhaust all diagnostic options to ensure they get the diagnosis of the infection right. After diagnosis they now can prescribe a specific antimicrobial or a broad spectrum one. 

As a medical practitioner, minimize both prescription and over prescription of antibiotics. Don’t prescribe antimicrobials just because the patient expects you to prescribe antibiotics. The reason for this is because sometimes the infections ailing the patients are viral and antibiotics don’t work on viruses.

Mutations

Microbes are notorious for constant mutations to both adapt and reproduce. The mutations allow them to evolve rapidly and adapt to new environmental conditions. Some of these mutations can help the individual microbe survive exposure to antimicrobials, resulting in antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Normally, antimicrobials kill microbes. If some microbes have developed resistance and don’t die, the resistant gene is then passed on to their offspring. For instance, bacteria multiply by the billions—terrifying I know. 

Bacteria with the drug resistant gene may transfer a copy of this gene to other bacteria that was otherwise non-resistant. The newly resistant bacteria is now immune to antimicrobials and will now only thrive and multiply, rendering the whole idea of antimicrobials moot.

Other Potential Causes of Antimicrobial Resistance

Scientists have concluded that adding antibiotics to agricultural feed indeed does promote AMR. Most of the antibiotics produced actually are used for agricultural purposes. Be that as it may, it’s still foggy on whether drug resistant microbes in animals are a significant enough public health concern.

It is not uncommon for critically ill patients to develop infections necessitating some antimicrobial intervention. The increased use of antimicrobials can worsen the situation by selecting for antimicrobial resistant microbes. 

The extensive use of the antimicrobials can be perceived as antibiotic overuse. This, coupled with close contact among the patients, creates the perfect environment for the spreading of drug resistant microbes. 

Precautions like personal protective equipment such as gloves, masks and eye glasses should be used to combat this situation in hospitals. Moreover, it goes without saying that the hygiene in hospitals should be nothing short of impeccable. 

Practices like handwashing or hand sanitization should be second nature. Hospital staff should also consistently practice appropriate handling and disposal of equipment like needles and clinical waste.

Some Common Drug-Resistant Microbes

There are several common drug resistant microbes but I’ll only mention one.

Staphylococcus Aureus 

This pathogen is actually harmless and can be found on your skin or in your nose. This pathogen can however cause an infection once it finds itself inside a wound. It is resistant to lots of antimicrobials like methicillin.