The battle against superbugs
THE emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases has created one of the most serious global public health threats — antimicrobial resistance.
The effective prevention and treatment of diseases are at risk when microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites resist antimicrobial drugs. As a result, the drugs — antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antimalarials and anthelmintics — become ineffective, and infections persist in the body, while increasing the risk of spreading to others.
According to the World Health Organisation, without effective antimicrobials for prevention and treatment of infections, medical procedures such as organ transplantation, cancer chemotherapy, diabetes management and major surgery become very high risk.
Consultant infectious disease physician, associate professor Dr Sasheela Sri La Sri Ponnampalavanar, says the impact of infections due to multidrug-resistant bacteria is catastrophic as many standard medical treatments will fail or turn into high-risk procedures.
As an example, resistance to antibiotics happens when bacteria and fungi develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them. This could result in prolonged illness, higher cost and even increased risk of death.
“We are now seeing more infections that do not respond to most antibiotics and some that donʼt respond to any antibiotics. To make matters worse, as the rate of global resistance increases, the pipeline for new antibiotics is drying up. There are very few options to treat resistant pathogens and there are times where we do not have any options.”
She says approximately 80 to 90 per cent of the ingested antibiotics in humans or animals pass through the body intact and enter the environment as waste. As such they retain their ability and promote antibiotic resistance even after they enter the soil or water as a waste product. Eventually, antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance can affect an entire community.