Antibiotic resistance can turn common ailments into killers – WHO

Antibiotic resistance, which can turn common ailments into killers, has
reached dangerous levels worldwide, the World Health Organization warned
Monday, saying users still know too little about how antibiotics
work. Antibiotic resistance happens when bugs become immune to existing
drugs, allowing minor injuries and common infections to become deadly.
Overuse and misuse of the drugs increases this resistance, but WHO also
published a survey of 10,000 people worldwide showing a range of
dangerous misconceptions about the threat, which are allowing it to
prosper.
“The rise of antibiotic resistance is a global health crisis, and governments
now recognise it as one of the greatest challenges for public health today,”
WHO chief Margaret Chan said in a statement, stressing that resistance was
“reaching dangerously high levels in all parts of the world.”
“Antibiotic resistance is compromising our ability to treat infectious diseases
and undermining many advances in medicine,” she warned. WHO’s 12-
country survey published Monday found that nearly two thirds of all those
questioned (64 percent) believe wrongly that antibiotics can be used to treat
colds and flu, despite the fact that the drugs have no impact on viruses.
The survey, conducted in Barbados, China, Egypt, India,Indonesia, Mexico,
Nigeria, Russia, Serbia, South Africa,Sudan and Vietnam, also showed that
66 percent believe that there is no risk of antibiotic resistance for people
who take their antibiotics as prescribed.
And nearly half (44 percent) thought antibiotic resistance was only a
problem for people who take the drugs regularly, when in fact, anyone, of
any age and anywhere, can get an antibiotic-resistant infection. Around a
third meanwhile believed it was best to stop an antibiotic treatment as soon
as they felt better, rather than completing the prescribed course of
treatment, the survey showed.
– ‘Urgent’ to improve understanding –
“The findings of this survey point to the urgent need to improve
understanding around antibiotic resistance,” Keiji Fukuda, the UN chief’s
special representative on antimicrobial resistance, said in the
statement. Along with its survey, WHO launched a campaign Monday called
“Antibiotics: Handle with care”, aimed at raising awareness about the
problem, and correcting such misconceptions.
“This campaign is just one of the ways we are working with governments,
health authorities and other partners to reduce antibiotic resistance,” Fukuda
said. “One of the biggest health challenges of the 21st century will require
global behaviour change by individuals and societies,” he added.
A WHO report in April showed there were “major gaps” in all regions of the
world in addressing the problem and reining in overuse and misuse of
antibiotics. The UN health agency has warned that without urgent action,
the world could be headed for “a post-antibiotic era” in which common
infections and minor injuries that have long been treatable once again
become killers.
The survey published Monday showed a dire lack of understanding of the
problem and widespread dangerous behaviour. Broken down by country, the
survey for instance showed that five percent of Chinese respondents who
had taken antibiotics in the past six months had purchased them on the
Internet, while the same percentage in Nigeria had bought them from a stall
or hawker.
In Russia, only 56 percent of those who had taken antibiotics in the past
year had them prescribed by a doctor or nurse.