Antibiotic resistance is a major issue that is happening right now and many people do not know what exactly it is. Everyone is so focused on feeling better and worrying about the now instead of the future that bacteria is given many chances to develop resistance to the antibiotics we currently have. My own friends have shared only one dose of antibiotics because the full course of antibiotics was not finished after feeling better. I know that if this has happened a couple of times, even in my experience, it is probably happening more than we think as well. The importance of resistance should be available to everyone or else it will be too late and bacteria will be able to cause mass disease and we will have no weapons to fight those bacteria.
An article published earlier this year explains the evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its role in antibiotic resistance in Bamako, Mali. Multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is becoming a major problem, especially in Mali, and this study observed the different lineages that the multidrug resistant strains were coming from and how they were evolving. The genotypes they observed had stemmed from Beijing, Cameroon, and Ghana and these are particularly virulent. They collected data from 76 patients with tuberculosis and found that 12% of the patients had multidrug resistant tuberculosis. This is a major problem because these resistant strains are then able to be spread to more people in the population and there are no drugs to help those who are sick.
Another article conducted a study in Medellin, Colombia and observed 3 medical schools and their curriculum surrounding antibiotic resistance. The study found that about half of the students from all 3 medical schools did not feel that they had sufficient education in antibiotic resistance. This insufficient education was reflected in about half of the students when they were evaluated for their knowledge of treatment for urinary tract infections, upper respiratory infections, skin infections and soft tissue infections. This article is shocking to me because even medical students who are training to become doctors are not fully educated on antibacterial resistance so how is the general public supposed to know? Everyone knows that they should finish their entire course of antibiotics but many people do not because they do not think that this resistance will happen to them. Well, it is happening and it will not stop until it’s bacteria can survive!
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