ABSTRACT
For decades, antibiotics have been utilized successfully to treat infectious diseases. As part of a natural process, resistance mechanisms evolved in bacteria rendering some of these antibiotics ineffective. A significant increase in the use of antibiotics worldwide has greatly accelerated this process. As a result, treatment of many infectious diseases such as tuberculosis or gonorrhea has become increasingly difficult and nosocomial infections are causing great problems in health care systems. Many action plans and counter-measures have been developed but are seldom put into action and fail to address all problems related to antibiotic resistance. To ensure that antibiotics will remain a reliable option for treating infectious diseases, targeted action is needed in various fields.
Subject(s)
Anti-Bacterial Agents , Communicable Diseases , Cross Infection , Practice Patterns, Physicians' , Tuberculosis , Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use , Germany , Humans , Practice Patterns, Physicians'/statistics & numerical dataABSTRACT
Without doubt, drug resistance is now one of the greatest health threats of our time. Not even 100 years after the discovery of the first antibiotics that saved human lives, we find ourselves threatened by the thought of a post-antibiotic era. Currently it is estimated that around 700,000 people die annually as a consequence of drug-resistant infections. Antibiotic resistance is a natural phenomenon with bacteria having devised several ways of combating the antibiotic attack. Rather than being a spontaneous event, resistance becomes an integral part of the microbe's genetic make-up, spreading further between and across species. However, the misuse and overuse of antibiotics over the years has in fact allowed for resistant bacteria to thrive, while slowly wiping out sensitive bacteria. Spreading awareness and proper information in the community about the risks and consequences of a rapidly developing antibiotic resistance is essential in tackling this global problem. In working together as an entire community, we can find long-lasting solutions. The One Health concept includes human and veterinary medical sectors, the environmental sector, as well as various decision-making bodies that include individual action as well as national and international policymakers. The role of stakeholders like pharmaceutical companies and agriculturists must be given importance, too, thinking all the while in a global context. Only this way will we find solutions for sustainable healthcare and together help slow down the process of antibiotic resistance.
