Cyprus and Greece, according to recent data from the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention, occupy the highest position in the consumption of antibiotics in the community, while they are among the countries of the European Union with the highest rates of antimicrobial resistance and the burden of infections from multi-resistant pathogens, it says in a statement of, the Cyprus Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infections (KEKMIL).
On the occasion of the World Antibiotic Resistance Awareness Week (November 18-24, 2022), KEKMIL reports that unfortunately in our country, despite the efforts of both the Public Health Services and all infectious disease specialists, clinical microbiologists and pharmacists, the problem of microbial resistance to antibiotics is still a “sad phenomenon”.
As mentioned, antimicrobial resistance is defined as the ability of microorganisms to resist the action of one or more antibiotics of their spectrum. The most important factor for this phenomenon of natural selection and evolution of microbes is the abuse of antibiotics.
Antibiotics, it is noted, are one of the greatest achievements in the history of medicine and humanity, since since the discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic in 1928, they have saved and continue to save millions of human lives every day from infections caused by microbes, turning diseases that were previously considered fatal into routine diseases that require little more than a short treatment.
However, it is pointed out, these achievements nowadays are endangered mainly due to the reckless and irrational use of antibiotics, which results in increasing antimicrobial resistance and the rise of nosocomial infections from multi-resistant microorganisms, which implies an increase in mortality , the duration of hospitalization and ultimately the financial burden on the Health Systems.
“Before the cycle of the coronavirus pandemic is even closed, a lurking epidemic, silent but very aggressive, is underway and will peak by 2050. It is the epidemic of resistant microbes, which show their potential especially inside hospitals, infecting the hospitalized and threatening even more their fragile health or even their lives”, it is added.
The extraordinary and imposing presence of SARS-COV-2 in the last three years, it is noted, intensified the problem of antimicrobial resistance. “Studies show that the consumption of antibiotics against secondary infections or often also prophylactics, in the context of a COVID-19 infection, increased by 11.2% in the first year of the pandemic. The administration of antibiotics in hospital seems to be following the same high course”, it is pointed out.
Warnings of a return to the “pre-antibiotic era”
It is also emphasized that without the immediate adoption of effective measures to reverse the current situation, there is a risk that in the next period of time we will be led to the “pre-antibiotic era”, where due to unavailable therapeutic options, simple infections will cause serious problems and will even bring death, turning routine medical procedures into high-risk procedures – complex surgeries will be impossible, as will treatments for immunocompromised patients.
According to the latest figures published in the medical journal “The Lancet”, in 2019 approximately 1.27 million people died directly from antibiotic-resistant microbial infections (compared to 860,000 from HIV/AIDS and 640,000 from malaria), while such infections can have also indirectly played a role in nearly another 5 million deaths. .
An estimated 214,000 newborns die each year from sepsis caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and the lack of effective antibiotics threatens both mainstream and advanced medicine. The paper's authors hope that, with this new data, the world is better equipped than ever to correct the wrong trajectory.
Covid-19, they say, has demonstrated the importance of global commitments to measures infection and control, such as hand washing, mask and surveillance, as well as rapid investment in treatments.
The new Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) is the most comprehensive global assessment to date of the impact of microbial resistance to antibiotics, covering 23 pathogenic microorganisms and 88 microbe-drug combinations.
Scientists, noted, they emphasize the need to find new drugs and make more judicious use of existing ones, otherwise more and more people will die in the future, who until recently were saved.
“The problem is worse in low- and middle-income countries, although the developed wealthier countries are also now experiencing more and more such cases, in which antibiotics fail to 'treat' an infection from a microbe. As the study of data from 204 countries shows, many hundreds of thousands of deaths now occur from common to recently treatable infections – such as lower respiratory tract and blood – because the bacteria responsible have become resistant to antibiotic treatments,” it added.
As mentioned, the causes of antimicrobial resistance are complex and multifaceted. They include the lack of adequate health services, the inappropriate use of antibiotics in both human treatment and animal food production, suboptimal water and sanitation systems, gaps in both access and research and development for essential health technologies, and environmental pollution.
It is noted that a global plan of action to address the growing problem of resistance to antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs was adopted at the Sixty-eighth World Health Assembly in May 2015. in the community as well as in the hospital setting as well as the growing risks posed by antimicrobial resistance, the World Health Organization has established the World Antibiotic Awareness Week (in November each year).
The World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) is a global campaign celebrated annually to improve awareness and understanding of AMR and encourage best practice among the public, One Health stakeholders and policy makers policy makers, who play a critical role in reducing further occurrence and the spread of AMR.
This year, WAAW's theme is 'Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance Together'.
