LETTER: Antibiotics have their limits, says Sault Doc

SooToday received the following letter addressed to the editor by Dr. Lucas Castellani, an infectious disease physician in Sault Ste. Marie, on Global Antibiotic Awareness Week:

Antibiotics are one of the best medical inventions of all time. Their discovery saved countless lives during the last century. Without antibiotics, we probably would not have progressed so fast in the areas of transplantation and cancer treatment. But unfortunately, like all medical therapies, they have their limitations.

Since the discovery of penicillin 90 years ago, there has been an arms race between the development of antibiotics and microbial resistance. However, until recently, we had no new antibiotics for these ever-changing resistant organisms. Even today, very few antibiotics are developed to fill this gap. It's scary. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) suggested that more resistant organisms would die than cancer in the world. We see bacteria and fungi that are resistant to almost all known antibiotics.

So what can be done to help this cause – to try to reduce a seemingly gigantic job? It's World Antibiotic Awareness Week (November 12-18, 2018), and I'm going to describe some of the things that everyone could do to make a difference:

• Do not take d & # 39; Antibiotics "just in case". There are many diseases that require antibiotics. However, more than 50% of antibiotic prescriptions are inappropriate. Patients receive inappropriate antibiotics, cloudy urine with colds, and they are not always safe. For example, some anti-cancer drugs do not work as well in patients who have taken antibiotics. Please ask your doctor if you really need this antibiotic and the benefits outweigh the risks.
• Avoid "sharing" antibiotics. Do not reuse them for other family members or friends because you can never be sure the product is safe. Because antibiotics have many side effects and risks, including the problem of resistance, always ask for advice when considering taking antibiotics.
• Clarify your allergy to penicillin. If you have an allergy to penicillin, you are more likely to receive less effective treatment when you actually have an infection. By talking with your healthcare professional, you may be able to dispel this allergy. This will allow your healthcare professional to use more effective and less risky alternatives.
• Wash your hands. Resistant microorganisms are usually transmitted from one person to another or from an environment contaminated to others. By washing your hands and / or using a hand sanitizer, you and your family can prevent yourself from contracting one of these difficult-to-treat microorganisms and pbad it on to your family. other.
• Get vaccinated – especially the influenza vaccine. Vaccination is the best way to prevent the treatment of the infection. Every year, many people die of the flu, but there is still concern that the disease is not effective enough. When you compare it to drugs like aspirin for heart attacks and statins for cholesterol, it's actually pretty effective. In addition, diagnostic tests to differentiate between bacteria and viruses are not yet very effective. Thus, by preventing the flu, you prevent people from needing antibiotics "just in case" the health care provider could not distinguish it from other types of infection.
• Be aware of the use of antibiotics outside of health care. This is a global problem and, if we continue to use antibiotics inappropriately in livestock and veterinary medicine, and continue to improperly dispose of these drugs, we will continue to see a permanent problem of resistance. Efforts can be as simple as limiting the antibiotics that your pet receives and buying food without antibiotics.

As in most fields of science and medicine, nothing is black or white. There are undeniable complexities here. However, unless we all make a concerted effort to achieve positive change, we could see this problem reach a point of no return. Antibiotics, the miracle cure of our time, may not be effective anymore.

Lucas Castellani is an infectious disease physician in Sault Ste. Marie If you would like to know more about this growing problem, you can access the WHO website or contact Dr. Castellani to ask him questions at [email protected]