It’s Essential that We Debunk These Antibiotic Myths!

In 1945 Howard Florey and Alexander Fleming were awarded a Nobel Prize in Medicine for their role in creating the first mass-produced antibiotic. Antibiotics were indeed a great breakthrough in the world of medicine - when used properly and safely, these powerful agents can be life-saving. 

 

However, there are a few common misconceptions about antibiotics, bacteria, and antibiotic resistance that can often lead to harmful misuse. In this article, we’ll discuss the most persistent myths regarding antibiotics that healthcare providers want you to stop believing. 

 

1. Myth: The body can become resistant to antibiotics

This is one of the most common misconceptions surrounding antibiotics. Antibiotics stop bacterial infections by killing the bacteria or preventing them from reproducing. It isn’t your body but rather the bacteria that can become resistant to antibiotics. Bacteria can even pass this resistance on to each other via genetic 'darts'. 

 

When antibiotics aren't taken correctly, the risk of new strains of resistant bacteria forming increases. “If the bacteria aren’t fully destroyed, you may get sick again. And the bacteria that remain can mutate and develop resistance to the antibiotic.” explained Dr. Benjamin N. Gilmore of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. That’s why you’re always t

However, the notion that it's impossible to develop antibiotic resistance as a result of correct use isn’t true either. Appropriate use applies the same selective pressure as does inappropriate use, so resistant bacteria can potentially form even if the antibiotics are taken correctly. The difference is that we can and should stop inappropriate use because it offers no benefit. In contrast, the benefits of the appropriate use of antibiotics significantly outweigh the risks. 

 

2. Myth: If you've never taken antibiotics you cannot get a resistant infection

While having taken antibiotics in the past does increase your risk of getting an antibiotic-resistant infection, it is possible for someone who has never taken antibiotics to get one too. 

 

Around 10% of the population carries resistant bacteria in their bodies, according to Antibiotics Research UK. These resistant strains can arise in a number of ways, including spontaneously, and through transmission from person to person. 

 

3. Myth: It's okay to use someone else’s leftover antibiotic

Antibiotics should only be taken when they’ve been specifically prescribed for you. You might have a friend or family member that had the same symptoms as you and were treated with antibiotics. Or you might suffer from an issue you are already familiar with and have been prescribed antibiotics in the past for it. Either way, taking someone else’s or your own leftover antibiotics without consulting a doctor is never a good idea. 

According to several healthcare providers, it’s a lot harder to help patients who have already taken antibiotics without being diagnosed, because It can be difficult to tell which symptoms are from the actual illness and which are side effects from the medication.

4. Antibiotics can be taken to treat colds and flu

 

The common cold and the flu are caused by viruses, not bacteria, therefore antibiotics are not a suitable treatment for these illnesses. Bacteria and viruses are two different microorganisms. The main difference between the two is that bacteria can live in almost any conceivable environment, including the human body, while viruses are a non-living collection of molecules that need a host, like the human cells, to survive. In other words, while bacteria are normal living creatures, viruses are parasites that cannot exist on their own. As such, they are usually much smaller than bacteria. 

 

Taking antibiotics against viral infections like the cold and the flu is ineffective at best, and in some cases could even make you feel worse. There are some ailments - such as pneumonia, meningitis, and diarrhea - that can be caused by either bacteria or viruses. You should always see a doctor if you have a high fever (over 101°F\38.5°C) and your symptoms linger for a period longer than 7 days. These can be signs that your symptoms might not be viral and that you have a bacterial infection. 

 

5. If you don't take your antibiotics correctly it does not affect anyone but you

As we established, misuse of antibiotics increases the risk of resistant strains forming. The problem is that by allowing this, you don’t just harm your own health but you put others at risk too, as these new strains can now infect other people. 

 

Antibiotic resistance has become a worldwide health threat, according to the CDC. In fact, this crisis seems to be worsening recently due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the fact that Covid-19 is a viral infection, research shows the use of antibiotics has steadily increased along with cases. Of those taking the antibiotics, 79–96% reported not having been infected with Covid-19 but were apparently taking antibiotics inappropriately, believing it would prevent infection. 

 

According to the WHO, 15% of Covid patients develop a bacterial co-infection and might need antibiotic treatment to survive. Appropriate use of antibiotics is crucial to society so that they work when people at high risk, such as those patients, really need them. Dr. Nino Berdzuli, director of the WHO put it best when he said "Everyone has a role to play as an antibiotic guardian".

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement
https://GSiyers home remedies.blogspot.com   is the latest addition to my blogs

Avoiding Infections in Hospitals

Many lives have been saved at hospitals. But, as one infectious disease doctor points out, hospitals can also make people sick. Hospitals are a hotbed of infections, and it's essential that a visitor or a patient do all they can to stop disease from spreading.

Infection Control Every year, 20 million people in the U.S. catch norovirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea. This disease spreads at a fast pace as billions of virus particles are released and all, it really takes to infect us are just a couple dozen strands. Hospitals have generally found a way to avoid these problems. They have identified potential infectious patients quickly and such patients are isolated. They are put in rooms where the airflow cannot infect others if their infection is airborne. Gloves, masks, eye shields are used to avoid a patient transmitting infections to others. 

 

But, what more can a patient or a visitor do to keep disease from spreading: 

 

1. Wash your hands

Using soap and water, or a hand sanitizer with 60% alcohol, reduces spreading or catching infections. This should be done before and after seeing a patient. It's something that's easy, but also easy to forget. 

 

2. Don't touch your face  

We tend to touch our face a lot, possibly even 15 times an hour. This spreads bugs from our hands to our nose and to our mouth, spreading fecal-oral and respiratory bugs from diarrhea illnesses to colds.

3. Be vaccinated

Patients are hospitalized because their immune systems cannot handle any other infections. Bear in mind that what may be a touch of the flu to you may be something that another cannot fight off. There are times when healthcare workers spread vaccinable infections to their patients, so it is important that we are vaccinated, ensuring that we protect the most vulnerable. 

 

4. Stay Home if ill 

If you are ill, avoid visiting patients. If you cannot, make sure that sneezes are covered with a tissue paper or upper sleeve. 

 

Other steps that you can take to reduce risk to healthcare workers and yourself: 

Each year, about 385,000 healthcare professionals are pricked by a needle or another sharp object. This means that the risk of HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, or other diseases is possible, albeit low. It is also a risk that no one should have to take. You can help further by doing the following: 

 

5. Never get in a nurse's way

Needle stick risks for nurses and doctors rise with distractions. Medical professionals need to concentrate and shouldn't answer questions when they are doing a procedure. 

 

6. Sharps Boxes:  

If it says, Don't Touch, don't touch Within each room of any major hospital is a box or wastebin designed for sharp objects like needles and scalpels. This protects maintenance personnel and everyone. Sometimes someone with throw something into a sharps bin. But needles don't compress, they can stick you instead.  

 

7. Antibiotic Resistance

Bacteria have been fought off with antibiotics since 1928, but doctors and scientists have since watched bacteria reclaim their turf. They seem to have an assortment of genes that resist antibiotics. If we can reduce infections and antibiotic usage, we can reduce the drug resistance that develops. 

 

8. Antibiotics: Take as needed and prescribed, only 

When it comes to antibiotics bear in mind that if you do need them, you need them, and if you don't, then you don't. If you do need them then you need to take the full amount prescribed. Antibiotic over-usage (and under-usage) leads to resistance and other infections that grow when other bacteria are wiped out with antibiotics. 

 

9. Extra Infection Control

We need to be cautious of not only visible infection but bugs we unknowingly carry, including drug-resistant bacteria. So take extra precautions by washing your hands regularly when visiting patients carrying such infections.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

 

New Study Underscores Urgent Need for New Antibiotics

According to a recent study published in The Lancet, nearly 1.3 million people worldwide were killed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the so-called superbugs, in 2019. Those are more deaths annually than those from either HIV or malaria. This new data underscores the already-grim danger that antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose, a threat that public health and national security experts have sounded the alarm over for years, and highlights the urgent need for action.

Also of concern, additional data indicates the superbug threat has escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a significant increase in health care-associated infections in 2020, many of which were caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). And, Pew’s own research has shown high rates of antibiotic use among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, which may have accelerated the emergence and spread of superbugs.

This and other data confirm what public health experts have long known: The threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria grows more serious by the day, and the need for new antibiotics has never been more urgent. Yet, there continue to be too few antibiotics in development, and as the authors of the Lancet study point out regarding research for new types of these drugs: “[I]nvestments have been small compared with those in other public health issues with similar or less impact.”

The bipartisan Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions to End Upsurging Resistance Act, or PASTEUR Act, offers Congress an opportunity to take meaningful action on this issue immediately. Introduced in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the bill would help reinvigorate the pipeline of new antibiotics by providing sizable government contracts for developing and ensuring access to high-priority drugs. This approach pays for new drugs based on their value to public health rather than how many doses are sold, addressing a core issue that has led to a broken antibiotics market. It is also consistent with the type of policy that numerous authoritative reports, commissions, and experts have identified as essential for breathing life back into a chronically insufficient antibiotics pipeline.

Additionally, the PASTEUR Act would foster appropriate use of these lifesaving drugs by including financial support for hospital antibiotic stewardship programs, which ensure that these drugs are used only when necessary and at the correct dose and duration, to help slow the spread of resistance and preserve the effectiveness of existing and new antibiotics. This kind of support is particularly critical for small and rural hospitals, which often have limited resources.

As more and more pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies abandon antibiotic research and development and the death toll from superbug infections rises, there’s no time to waste. The PASTEUR Act would jump-start innovation of the types of new antibiotics that are essential to protecting patients today—and are critical to public health and biosecurity preparedness. Congress should pass this legislation as soon as possible.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement