Antibiotics, also known as antimicrobial drugs, are medicines that can kill or slow the growth of bacteria to cure infections in people, animals and sometimes plants. Not all antibiotics are effective against all bacteria as bacteria have different structures.
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.
Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium that forms part of our skin flora and is also a common cause of infections both in the community and in health-care facilities. People with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections are 64% more likely to die than people with drug-sensitive infections.
Klebsiella pneumoniae are common intestinal bacteria that can cause life-threatening infections. Resistance in K. pneumoniae to last resort treatment (carbapenem antibiotics) has spread to all regions of the world. K. pneumoniae is a major cause of hospital-acquired infections such as pneumonia, bloodstream infections, and infections in newborns and intensive-care unit patients. In some countries, carbapenem antibiotics do not work in more than half of the patients treated for K. pneumoniae infections due to resistance.
Bacteria resistant to colistin has also been recognised in certain countries. Colistin is the last resort treatment for life-threatening infections caused by carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae (i.e., E. coli, Klebsiella, etc). Therefore, no effective antibiotic is available for treatment of such infections.
What can we do?
• Follow your doctor’s advice when taking antibiotics.
• Wash your hands and your children’s hands regularly or apply alcohol hand rub, for instance after sneezing or coughing before touching other things or people.
• Encourage staff to apply alcohol rub on their hands if you are an inpatient
• Always use antibiotics under medical prescription, not using “leftovers” or antibiotics obtained without a prescription.
• Prevent infection through appropriate vaccination when possible.
• Ask your pharmacist about how to dispose of the remaining medicines.
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