Bacterial resistance: the counterpart of the pandemic

Bacterial resistance is what develops when bacteria are able to resist any type of antibiotic or antibiotics.

So when this happens, not only do they continue to get stronger, but they also continue to cause infection.

Infectious agents resistant to antimicrobial agents are a progressive problem today.

On the other hand, antibiotics are drugs that are used to treat certain infectious diseases, stopping the growth of bacteria or killing them.

How does antibiotic resistance occur?

They mainly occur when the bacteria no longer respond sensitively to the antibiotic, therefore they survive and continue to multiply. But there are various conveniences in which bacteria become resistant.

Similarly, bacteria become resistant when they transfer genetic material from one bacterium to another. Thus, antibiotic resistance spreads easily and quickly among them.

As time passes, they can acquire various types of resistance. As a consequence, what are the "superbugs" resistant to many classes of antibiotics are born.

These categories of pathogens are capable of being transmitted from person to person, causing infections that are difficult or impossible to treat.

Could it happen with any type of infection?

Everything will depend on the evolution that is taking place regarding bacterial resistance. However, tuberculosis, gonorrhea, malaria and childhood otitis are clear examples that infections are proving difficult to treat.

Being these consequences of the appearance of microorganisms that are resistant to antibiotics, thus showing themselves to be the main factor of basically the majority of infections.

Additionally, resulting in a negative effect on public health, this problem favors an increase in health values.

It should be noted that a key component in the development of bacterial resistance is their ability to rapidly adapt. To all this is added the inappropriate use of drugs giving bacteria a point in favor.

Does it only happen with bacteria?

There are various agents capable of causing infectious diseases such as: bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. However, bacteria and viruses are usually the most prominent, although it does not mean that fungi could not become resistant to drugs.

It is noteworthy that the development of resistance is common; exposure of bacteria to such antibiotics has become more common than normal.

Self-medication and the irrational use of such pharmaceutical drugs in pathologies for which they are not subscribed, generates an increasingly reluctant inconvenience.

What do the professionals say about it?

It has definitely been considered a silent pandemic, causing more deaths than AIDS or malaria. It is estimated that by mid-2050 there will be approximately 10 million deaths per year.

As an alarming fact, the experts in charge indicated the acceleration of the process is exponential. If pertinent and strict measures are not applied, 2050 will be really short for what actually happens.

In 2019 , nearly 5 million deaths were estimated as a direct result of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Information given by the Mexican scientist Gisela Robles Aguilar, one of those in charge in the area.

People die from infections that used to be common, and over time the causative bacteria have become resistant to their treatments. This due to the inappropriate use of antibiotics which caused them to be less effective.

In itself, the bacteria or infections that are being targeted are: specifically deadly Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.

As the years go by, they are pathological agents that respond reluctantly to therapy, sustaining resistance to antimicrobials.

Who is most affected?

The poorest countries are the most affected, but it is well known that resistance to antimicrobial drugs is a global ultimatum. Also, young children are at one of the greatest risks.

Most deaths from resistant bacteria are from respiratory tract infections and certain blood infections.

1. In another instance, Latin America has been affected. As many deaths have been registered in the Central Region, such as in: Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama and Venezuela.

2. Countries in the Andean regions: Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, where this great threat was just beginning. The situation is increasingly worrying due to the deficiency in many infection prevention and control programs.

In retrospect, it is worth mentioning hospital centers, especially public ones. It is transcendental to create awareness, reducing the frequency of hospital infections, favoring the reduction of the use of antibiotics in hospitals.

What are the main bacteria resistant to antibiotics?

• Mycobacterium tuberculosis (bacteria that causes tuberculosis), a commonly serious disease that is transmissible through the air. Tuberculosis affects the lungs; however, it can disturb other organs of the body.

• Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), infects the colon to give rise to a medium to severe gastrointestinal symptomatology. C. difficile is a bacterium that is naturally resistant to common antibiotics.

• Vancomycin-resistant enterococci, bacteria that are usually located in colonies in the digestive tract and female genital tract. These types of infections occur in people who are in hospitals or health care facilities.

• Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (staphylococcus aureus) passed from being a nuisance to a serious public health problem. Although it is a common infection, strains of this organism are circulating causing serious infections without responding to suppressive therapy.

• Neisseria gonorrhoeae (bacteria that causes gonorrhea), a sexually transmitted infection, which, if not treated properly, can cause serious reproductive complications.

• Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, a family of highly resistant bacteria that includes species such as Klebsiella and Escherichia Coli (E. coli). Thus afflicting, mainly, hospitalized patients and those with weakened immune systems.

COVID-19 and the use of antibiotics

Treatment of resistant infections often requires the use of expensive and toxic antibiotics, which can lead to an extended hospital stay. Immediate action is required if you want to stay one step ahead of the situation.

In another order of ideas, it is necessary to constantly measure the use of antibiotics. Above all, in times where the coronavirus pandemic has increased their bad recipe.

Recalling, at the beginning of the COVID-19 catastrophe, azithromycin, amoxicillin or other antibiotic drugs were widely used.

A blunder because the evidence was neither supportable nor conclusive. In turn, common and logical sense made it determined that, being a virus, it obviously would not respond to them.

Unfortunately, ignorance or lack of medical criteria continues to predominate. If it is not nipped in the bud, the horizon that lies ahead for humanity is not at all satisfactory.