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Research suggests that over-the-counter lozenges can fuel the rise of superbugs.
One study found that antibiotics added to over-the-counter medications often failed to eliminate the bacteria responsible for the patient's symptoms.
The researchers fear that this will strengthen the bacteria and allow the species to develop resistance to antibiotics.
Over-the-counter lozenges for sore throats can fuel the rise of superbugs (stock)
The research was conducted by Cardiff University and at the request of Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare.
"Our work raises doubts about the continued availability of these over-the-counter antibiotics for the treatment of sore throats, especially given the essentially viral nature of the disease," said Adrian Shephard of Reckitt Benckiser.
Antibiotics are only effective against bacterial infections. However, many people mistakenly believe that drugs will cure viruses. This is worrisome, as improper treatment of infections could make it more difficult to kill potentially life-threatening bacteria.
The study comes as the fear of antibiotic resistance – partly driven by the needless abandonment of medications – has transformed once-innocuous bacteria into formidable bacteria.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that if nothing had been done, we are moving towards a "post-antibiotic" era. In the United States alone, about 2 million people are infected each year with an antibiotic-resistant bacterium, causing at least 23,000 deaths.
Pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhea and salmonellosis are among the growing number of infections that are increasingly difficult to treat.
To discover the role of antibiotics in over-the-counter medications, the researchers badyzed four species of bacteria known to develop resistance to commonly used antibiotics.
Cultures were performed on Staphylococcus aureus, Acinetobacter baumannii, Streptococcus pyogenes and Haemophilus influenza.
WHAT IS RESISTANCE TO ANTIBIOTICS?
Doctors and hospital staff have been dispensing antibiotics unnecessarily for decades, making formerly harmless bacteria become superbugs.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has already warned that if nothing was done, the world was heading towards a "post-antibiotic" era.
He claimed that common infections, such as chlamydia, would become life-threatening without immediate solutions to the growing crisis.
Bacteria can become drug resistant when people take incorrect doses of antibiotics or if they are dispensed unnecessarily.
Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies said in 2016 that the threat of antibiotic resistance is as serious as terrorism.
Figures estimate that super-bacteria will kill 10 million people each year by 2050, patients succumbing to previously harmless insects.
About 700,000 people are already dying each year from drug-resistant infections, such as tuberculosis, HIV, and malaria, all over the world.
Concerns have been raised repeatedly that drugs will be reduced to "dark ages" if antibiotics are ineffective in the years to come.
In addition to existing drugs becoming less effective, there have been only one or two new antibiotics developed over the last 30 years.
In September, the WHO warned that antibiotics were about to run out, a report revealing a "serious lack" of new drugs under development.
Without antibiotics, caesareans, cancer treatments and hip replacements would become incredibly "risky", it was said at the time.
These were then exposed to decreasing concentrations of gramicidin, neomycin, bacitracin and tyrothricin for 24 hours at human body temperature (37 ° C / 98.6 ° F).
And the surviving bacteria were then tested for their sensitivity to antibiotics.
The researchers sought to find out if the standard concentrations of antibiotics used in over-the-counter medications were greater than the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) – the minimum amount of a drug needed to stop bacterial growth.
The results revealed that for S. aureus and A. baumannii, the concentrations of neomycin, bacitracin and tyrothricin were all higher than the MIC.
And these concentrations were sufficient to stop bacterial growth.
No MIC could be determined for gramicidin.
The researchers say this suggests that none of the gramicidin concentrations tested have been able to prevent the growth of S. aureus or A. Baumannii.
"We were concerned that some of the over-the-counter antibiotics used in sore throat preparations were not concentrated enough to prevent the growth of common human pathogens and allowed these pathogens to develop. resistance, "said Shephard.
H. influenza could not develop with any of the antibiotics or tested concentrations.
In addition, S. pyogenes increased only in very low concentrations – 1% and 5% of those found in drugs – when exposed to neomycin.
When S. aureus was exposed to bacitracin, it finally showed growth after 144 hours at high concentrations.
And a culture grown at a lower concentration of the drug has been shown to have reduced susceptibility to the antibiotics gentamicin, fusidic acid and ciprofloxacin.
This suggests that the bacteria may have benefited from cross-resistance.
This occurs when an insect develops resistance to an antibiotic not as a result of direct exposure to the drug but to exposure to a related substance.
This research was presented at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
The co-author, Jean-Yves Maillard, professor of pharmaceutical microbiology at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, added: "This is an interesting study that has shown once again the potential of bacteria to adapt to chemotherapeutic antibiotics.
& # 39;[It highlights] the need for careful and possibly controlled use of antibiotics in practice ".
THE WORST CASE IN THE WORLD OF GONORRHEA WAS CURIED WITH AN ANTIBIOTIC OF THE LAST BRANCH
An Englishman who caught the "worst case in the world" of super-gonorrhea was cured in April 2018 with a last-ditch antibiotic.
In the first case recorded in the world, an unidentified man caught a version of the badually transmitted infection (STI) resistant to two essential drugs.
Health officials revealed that he had caught her one night with a woman during her travels in southeastern Asia earlier this year, while He had a girlfriend in the UK.
Public Health England (PHE) has issued a warning regarding IST, which is resistant to ceftriaxone and azithromycin – the two drugs recommended for gonorrhea.
In a statement, the government agency revealed that the man – whose place of residence had also been concealed – had been cured with ertapenem, an antibiotic.
Dr. Gwenda Hughes, Head of STIs at PHE, said, "We are pleased to report that the case of multidrug-resistant gonorrhea has been successfully treated.
"Investigations have also revealed that this infection has not spread to the UK anymore."
Dr. Hughes warned that "we expect to see new cases of multidrug-resistant gonorrhea in the future".
Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) raised fears two years ago that the MST, formerly known as "clap", is immunized against antibiotics in a few years.
The WHO recommends that patients take ceftriaxone and azithromycin to fight gonorrhea, the third most common STI in Britain.
Officials said: "This is the first global report on high-level N. gonorrhoeae resistant to azithromycin, which is also resistant to ceftriaxone."
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