How does antibiotic resistance occur?

Antibiotic resistance happens when germs like bacteria or fungi become immune to the antibiotic or antifungal meant to get rid of them. Instead of the germs getting wiped out, they stick around in our bodies and keep spreading, which then makes infections much harder to fight off. Using unnecessary antibiotics when we don’t really need them just helps these resistant bacteria or fungi grow even stronger.

Antibiotic resistance is a major problem for public health, negatively impacting millions of people around the world every year. In the US alone, the CDC states there are over 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections annually, leading to the death of more than 35,000 people (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022).

What is the reason for the spread of antibiotic resistance?

Antibiotic resistance primarily happens due to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. Antibiotics are often prescribed unnecessarily for viral infections like the common cold, against which they are ineffective. This overuse exposes bacteria to antibiotics unnecessarily, allowing them to develop resistance. The germs may:

• Develop an ability to stop the medicine’s effect.
• Develop an ability to pump the medicine out of the cell.
• Change (mutate) so that the medicine no longer works.

When bacteria become resistant, the original antibiotic can no longer kill them. These germs can then grow and spread. They can cause infections that are hard to treat and sometimes they can even spread the resistance to other bacteria that they meet.

Using antibiotics when they aren’t needed is a major reason why antibiotic resistance is becoming more common. It’s important to use these medicines only when completely necessary. The rise and fast spread of antibiotic resistance is happening at a quicker rate due to how often we misuse antibiotics.

What steps can I take to prevent antibiotic resistance?

• Don’t take antibiotics for a virus.
• Don’t save an antibiotic for the next time you get sick.
• Take antibiotics exactly as prescribed, don’t skip doses, and complete your full course of treatment even if you are feeling better.
• Never take an antibiotic prescribed for someone else.

Healthcare providers can also help by:

• Only prescribing antibiotics that are needed.
• Targeting the medicine as soon as possible to the specific bacteria involved.
• Prescribing medicines for only as long as needed.
• Utilize antibiotic resistance panels such as those provided by the ReliaHealth test kits to discover if an individual’s bacterial infection is resistant to certain antibiotics and prescribing the correct ones

One of the major benefits to the ReliaHealth test kits is not only does it determine the types of bacteria or fungi present in an infection, it also detects antibiotic resistant genes in those pathogens, allowing a physician to determine the correct antibiotic or form of treatment needed for the individual. This prevents misdiagnosed prescriptions and reduces antibiotic resistance in all individuals.

References:

https://www.cedars-sinai.org/health-library/diseases-and-conditions/a/antibiotic-resistance.html

https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/about.html

https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/about/how-resistance-happens.html

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance