Superbug series - #1 Antibiotics : A boon or a bane ?

Hey everyone !

It’s been a while. As I recently completed my Post graduation degree, I was quite busy with my exams and thesis dissertation. I apologize for having to keep you waiting for my articles. But to fill the gap in posting my articles and keeping your brains occupied with science, I have come up with a new series that is the need of the hour.

I welcome you all to the new series on ‘Superbug’. Few articles in these series will be in layman language, for the general public, whereas the rest will be loaded with scientific information. As my readers belong both to SCICOMM & NON-SCICOMM background, I am trying to keep a mix of the article types throughout these series.

As Medical microbiology is one of my core interests in the field of Biomedical sciences, I decided to start a series on communicating about microorganisms. The objective of my Superbug series is not only to make all my fellow readers aware of the good side or bad side of microbes, but also focus on creating an awareness against overuse/misuse of Antibiotics that had resulted in a world suffering with Antimicrobial resistance due to Superbugs.

Before I brainstorm you with microbes in general, let me start the current series with a common medicine that is known and used by all of us till date.

Antibiotics. I am sure everyone of us have used these at some point of our lives; from treating any skin infection, to urine infection, we all have either consumed or applied antibiotics in life. But do all of us have the knowledge about these ? Let’s know what antibiotics actually are and whether they are a boon or a bane.

Antibiotics are medicines that possess an ability to fight certain bacterial infections by either stopping the bacteria from multiplying or by killing them. Basically, they can act as bacteriostatic or bactericidal agents. Bacteriostatic agents are the ones that inhibit the growth of microbes at that particular moment, whereas bactericidal agents completely kill microbes. Despite the advancements across microbiology in developing bactericidal agents, bacteria have become resistant to antibacterial agents. Antibiotics are one of these agents. They are helpful when the immune system is too weak to fight the foreign organisms & the white blood cells are less in number.

While mankind was lucky to be saved by the discovery of antibiotics by Alexander Fleming during world war 2, humans have misused them in every way which has now led to a situation of concern.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), overuse of antibiotics is a particular problem.

Several microorganisms are gaining resistance towards narrow as well as broad spectrum antibiotics. Examples of antibiotic resistant strains are :

1️⃣Ethicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

2️⃣Multi-drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MDR-TB)

3️⃣Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)

4️⃣Vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE).

To cope up with the antibiotic resistant organisms, a higher class of antibiotics - 'Carbapenems' were used to treat suspected multi resistant drug bacterial infections but the history repeated itself & the use of this highly effective class of antibiotics too, has increased significantly in the last decade.

The most common & silly reasons for such a broad class of antibiotics becoming ineffective to organisms is their overuse, misuse & self diagnosis worldwide. If this continues, there will be no antibiotic available on this planet that will be effective to kill organisms & mankind will vanish with a flood of diseases. Since I began studying microorganisms and viruses in my undergraduate degree, I have always had a notion that it will be these tiny vicious creatures that will end mankind, and not any war or natural geographical calamity.

How to prevent antibiotic resistance :

STOP self diagnosing yourself. If you're sick, go to your doctor. Instead of saving money by cutting a trip to the hospital & self diagnosing yourself, eventually making your body prone to bacterial infections, think a step ahead & go to the doctor right away.

DON'T consume antibiotics for viral infections. It's a myth that antibiotics cure viral infections. The fact is, they don't. Antibiotics are used for killing bacteria and not viruses. So don't consume antibiotics for viral infections.

Know the risks associated :

Not every individual has a stronger immune system. Everybody doesn't react to antibiotics in a positive way; some may fall more sick with it due to reactions. Reactions to antibiotics can be serious - anaphylactic reactions which most of the times, are fatal. Other than immediate allergic reactions, an individual might get resistant to a particular strain or species of bacteria due to overuse/misuse of an antibiotic over a period of years; antimicrobial resistance doesn’t happen instantly, it takes years for the bacteria to gain resistance. So don't kill yourself over misuse of the boon of antibiotics and stay safe, be smart.

Let's make efforts to make antibiotics a boon instead of a bane for mankind.

- Rachna Jadhav

@theresilientresearcher