Universal resistance to antibiotics - the end of modern medicine?

According to experts, the world is rapidly approaching the "post-antibiotic era". Very soon common infections can again become deadly to humans. This will happen if the current trend continues. Dangerous viruses and bacteria have developed resistance to drugs, which 100 years ago were a breakthrough in medicine. When this moment comes, complex surgical interventions will be impossible. Patients will be at great risk when organ transplantation, joint replacement and chemotherapy. Under the threat of death will remain prematurely born babies, staying for weight gain in special incubators. As we can see, the "postantibiotics era" can put an end to modern medicine in the form in which it now resides.

Why did the infection stop responding to antibiotics?

This problem was voiced in April last year by the Director of the World Health Organization, Dr Margaret Chan. Many experts in the field of medicine have already agreed that mutant bacteria can become the No. 1 problem for global health. Why did some infections stop responding to antibiotic treatment? Maybe we do not have a reason for premature panic.

This is proved by a mass of scientific research: the drugs that we use to treat infectious diseases gradually reduce their effectiveness. If we continue to apply known measures, in the end, no antibiotic will not be able to withstand the bacteria. Unfortunately, medicine once took the wrong path. The effectiveness of antibiotics would not decrease only if they were not at all.

How will our life change?

Here is what the director of the Center for Antimicrobial Resistance at Emory University, Dr. David Weiss says: "This situation will change our whole life in the usual sense. Think about the fact that humanity will be thrown far back, in those times when even a minor scratch could provoke a fatal outcome. "

What can be done to prevent medical apocalypse?

We described a very gloomy picture. However, we have good news. The world has long been aware of this problem and is already beginning to take some action at the highest level. There are many commercial and public organizations, as well as individuals, who, with the support of the governments of developed countries, work hard to avoid the worst scenario for the whole mankind.

Constant resistance to antibiotics can not be prevented

Unfortunately, everything is not so simple. Despite all the best efforts of the best scientific minds, bacteria have already received a powerful weapon in this confrontation. This ability was developed in microorganisms in the process of evolution. And if there were no antibiotics, there would be no resistance to them. This is the nature of bacteria. We can consider this using the example of staphylococcal infection. In the recent past, it was easily treated with penicillin. But today the strains mutated, and we received a MRSA version, in which there were only ten percent of the old staphylococcal infection. Now penicillin is an absolutely useless weapon against mutated strains. As new research shows, two people out of every hundred are the carriers of the MRSA or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

How does resistance develop?

Just like humans, bacteria have DNA. Just like in humans, deoxyribonucleic acid macromolecules can change and undergo mutations. When patients use antibiotics to kill bacteria, in some cases, the microorganisms spontaneously mutate, changing the composition in such a way that the drugs are powerless. These bacteria have an increased survival rate and can be transmitted from one living creature to another.

The most difficult part of this process is that resistant microorganisms can share part of their DNA with other bacteria. Both humans and animals are filled with a trillion different kinds of unicellular animals. Even if a person has only been exposed to antibiotics once in a lifetime, and the strains have been mutated, he will, until the end of his life, contain modified bacteria that will not have proliferation problems.

Finally

And the more people try to neutralize deadly microorganisms with drugs, the more methods they use, the more opportunities are provided for bacteria to develop new genes. From this follows only one conclusion: we will be helped only by the wise use of antibiotics in emergency cases. This is the only way we can deprive bacteria of resistance weapons.