Abstract

ANTIBIOTICS RESISTANCE: A SILENT GLOBAL THREAT

Tarique Mahmood*, Supriya Roy, Hefazat Hussain Siddiqui, Arshiya Shamim

ABSTRACT

Antibiotic resistance, occurring all over the world in bacteria responsible for common but serious infections, is a growing public health threat of broad concern to countries and multiple sectors. The current magnitude of the problem and the speed with which new resistance phenotypes are emerging elevates the public health significance of this issue. In recent decades, almost every variant of bacteria has become stronger and less vulnerable to antibiotic treatment, threatening new strains of infectious disease or super strains that are both more expensive to treat and more difficult to cure. A post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries can kill, far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century. Antibiotic resistance has cast a shadow over the medical miracles we take for granted, undermining every clinical and public health program designed to contain infectious diseases worldwide. Limited access to medical care and effective treatments, the common practice of self-medication, and the availability of counterfeit drugs have exacerbated drug resistance in the developing world. The indiscriminate and inappropriate use of antibiotics in outpatient clinics, hospitalized patients and in the food industry is the single largest factor leading to antibiotic resistance. In addition, there has been less innovation in the field of antibiotic discovery research and development. In recent years, the number of new antibiotics licensed for human use in different parts of the world has been lower than in the recent past. The vagueness of the international response and the failure to translate existing knowledge into concrete action are serious problems. Within few years, we might be facing with dire setbacks, medically, socially, and economically, unless real and unprecedented global coordinated actions are immediately taken to reduce the present and future consequences of antibiotics resistance.

Keywords: antibiotic, antibiotic resistance, WHO, microorganism.