UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURESTI

FACULTATEA DE BIOLOGIE
SPECIALIZAREA: ECOLOGIE SI PROTECTIA MEDIULUI
STUDENT: PANFIL ANDRA-GABRIELA, AN I, SUBGRUPA 4

How to prevent antibiotic resistance

Antibiotics and similar drugs, together called antimicrobial agents,
have been used for the last 70 years to treat patients who have infectious
diseases. Since the 1940s, these drugs have greatly reduced illness and
death from infectious diseases. However, these drugs have been used so
widely and for so long that the infectious organisms the antibiotics are
designed to kill have adapted to them, making the drugs less effective.
Each year in the United States, at least 2 million people become
infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000
people die each year as a direct result of these infections.
Antibiotic resistance occurs when germs outsmart drugs. In today's
healthcare and community settings, we are already seeing germs stronger
than the drugs we have to treat them. This is an extremely scary situation
for patients and healthcare workers alike.
So, what is fueling antibiotic resistance, you may ask? We're finding
that the widespread overuse and incorrect prescribing practices are
significant problems. In addition to driving drug resistance, these poor
practices introduce unnecessary side effects, allergic reactions, and
serious diarrheal infections caused by Clostridium difficile. These
complications of antibiotic therapy can have serious outcomes, even
death.
According to CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network, a growing
number of healthcare-associated infections are caused by bacteria that
are resistant to multiple antibiotics. These include: vancomycin-

resistant Enterococcus, extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant K.

pneumonia (and K. oxytoca), E. coli and Enterobacter spp. Etc.
It's concerning to think that the antibiotics that we depend upon for
everything from skin and ear infections to life-threatening bloodstream
infections could no longer work. Unfortunately, the threat of untreatable
infections is very real.

So, what can we do to prevent antibiotic resistance in

healthcare settings?
Patients, healthcare providers, healthcare facility administrators, and
policy makers must work together to employ effective strategies for
improving antibiotic useultimately improving medical care and saving
lives.

Can antibiotic resistance be overcome?

One approach taken by scientists to combat antibiotic resistance is to
strengthen the action of existing antibiotics by modifying them so the
bacterial enzymes that cause resistance cannot attack them. Alternately,
"decoy" molecules can be used along with the antibiotic, so that the

bacterium's resistance enzyme attacks the decoy molecule rather than the
antibiotic. Decoy molecules such as clavulanic acid or sulbactam are
already in use for blocking the beta-lactamase enzymes that destroy the
penicillin family of drugs.
An alternative approach to the antibiotic resistance problem is to interfere
with the mechanisms that promote resistance, rather than to attempt to
kill the bacteria. For example, interfering with the duplication or
movement of a bacterium's genetic material would eliminate the transfer
of resistance genes between bacteria.

Bibliografie

http://www.cdc.gov/features/antibioticresistance/index.html#chartB
http://www.tufts.edu/med/apua/about_issue/what_can_be_done.shtml