Another November has come and it’s time once again for World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, November 18-24, 2o22. Sadly, antimicrobial resistance continues to wreck havoc on patients’ lives and threaten our health. Many of the issues that we face stem from the lack of education about antimicrobials. How we use antimicrobials (or forget to), as well as how they are prescribed to us, play a major role in the development of antimicrobial resistance. In the very least, please note that not all medications used to treat infections are effective in treating all infectious agents.
- Antibiotics are used for bacterial infections.
- Antiviral drugs are used for viral infections.
- Antifungal drugs are used for fungal infections.
- Antiparasitic drugs are used across many parasite types.
- Antihelminth drugs are used for parasitic worms.
There is no magic pill to cure everything. They act in different ways. Even within a class of these medications, many drugs are not effective (or have decreased effectiveness) against particular agents. Unfortunately, this fact means without testing for susceptibility (ability for a compound to cause a microbe to be unable to grow), then we are just guessing and that can cause more problems. The wrong antimicrobial may not treat the infection and could theoretically allow the infectious agent to cause even more issues in the patient. In some causes, the antimicrobial is too strong in treating the microbe and can actually make us sicker.
The take-home message for this World Antimicrobial Awareness Week is to ask questions about the antimicrobials that you are prescribed and make sure that you are using the right tool for the job.
Check out the UN’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week page here for more information.
Join the Small World Initiative (@Team_SWI) and Tiny Earth Program (#TEWAAW) in spreading the word about Antimicrobial Awareness
#dosomething #BeAntibioticsAware #AntibioticResistance #superbugs #USAAW21.
