Antibiotic resistance may put many treatments at risk

RECENT Media reports said antibiotic resistance on human body is on rise to have disastrous consequences for patients undergoing surgery or chemotherapy. A study published in medical journal ‘The Lancet Infectious Diseases’ highlighted the extent of growing resistance to antibiotics in preventing infectious diseases. In the US, at present apparently upto half of infections after surgery and over a quarter of infections after chemotherapy are caused by organisms resistant to standard antibiotics. Washington based Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy voiced concerns on the development saying many common surgical procedures and cancer chemotherapy will virtually become impossible if antibiotic resistance is not tackled urgently.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified the antibiotic resistance as a global crisis calling for more research to protect the potentials of the drug with careful application as a curative medicine to infections. The reason behind antibiotic resistance is overdose as well as incomplete cycles by patients; which gradually allow harmful organisms in human body to become more resistant. The medical science has therefore laid emphasis on proportional use of the drug and complete its course so that harmful organisms are totally destroyed. Incomplete course means some organism may remain alive or not totally destroyed and such repeated irregularity then resist effectiveness of the drug overtime. So there is an urgent need for minimizing the excessive use of antibiotics in our medical and agricultural practices as it accelerates the growth of resistant strains.
It is high time Bangladesh needs to work towards tracking and monitoring antibiotic resistance in human bodies and plants and our scientists must immediately start working with international bodies to find a standard way of doing so. Doctors need to encourage patients not to stop antibiotic cycles midway while pharmaceutical companies need to develop new antibiotics to supplement those already losing effectiveness. Moreover, there is a growing need to make people regularly aware of the dangers of antibiotic resistance as many take the drug without physicians’ prescription. In many cases people also apply it to family members neglecting advice from the physicians. Local pharmacies are also selling it working on commonsense ideas.