Super bugs were already on the rise. The pandemic may have made things worse.

Public health experts say that the misuse and abuse of antibiotics during a pandemic can exacerbate antibiotic resistance, avoiding powerful drugs designed to evolve and destroy pathogens such as bacteria and fungi. I am concerned about having sex.

Over 750,000 people have died The number is expected to reach each year from antibiotic-resistant infections 10 million by 2050..

Currently, the abuse of antibiotics during the COVID-19 pandemic may exacerbate the problem. Antibiotics in many patients during the early months of the pandemic when COVID-19 patients showed cough, fever, shortness of breath, and chest x-rays revealed white spots (inflammation of the lungs similar to bacterial pneumonia). The substance was prescribed. The United States is the country with the greatest damage to COVID-19 in terms of infection and death. More than half of about 5,000 patients Patients admitted between February and July 2020 were prescribed at least one antibiotic within 48 hours of admission.

“When dealing with uncertainty, you make mistakes on the prescribing side, which is not always the right thing to do,” says Jacqueline Bourke, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Antibiotics only kill bacteria, not viruses like SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19. However, pneumonia can be caused by fungi, bacteria, or viruses, and it can take at least 48 hours to determine which pathogen is the cause, and invasive steps to determine the cause of the infection. It may be included. The test may not identify the cause. “Many of us were probably overprescribing large amounts of antibiotics, but without a solid understanding of what we were dealing with, we did the best we could at that time. I’ve done it, “says Bork.

Some doctors were also concerned that fungal or bacterial infections could occur during or after COVID-19. Found in influenza and other viral illnesses.. “Initially, so many people had pneumonia that we couldn’t even test for viral and bacterial infections,” says Bork.

She and other doctors around the world have a co-infection with fungi and bacteria Less than 20 percent Some COVID-19 patients reduce their use of antibiotics. However, patients who were severely ill and stayed in the hospital for long periods of time (often using respiratory tracts or catheters that could cause bacterial infections that cause sepsis) needed antibiotics.

Still, in many parts of the world, doctors continued to prescribe antibiotics to COVID-19 patients who may not have needed them. When patients were unable to consult a doctor, they relied on antibiotic self-medication. Precautions.. The cost and lack of access to diagnostic tests to confirm bacterial infections, and thus the need for antibiotics, attitudes as needed, and sometimes unawareness of the latest science, of antibiotics in the process of abuse and pandemics. Misuse.

How does antibacterial resistance develop?

In nature, soil-dwelling fungi and bacteria produce chemicals called antibiotics that kill or block the growth of other bacteria that are fighting for the same limited resources. Over time, the target adapts by evolving resistance to such weapons. They do this by inactivating antibiotics, expelling drugs from bacterial cells, and producing proteins called enzymes that limit the invasion of antibiotics or circumvent their effects. Other bacterial species that were not the original target of antibiotics can also develop defenses by acquiring related genes from surrounding resistant strains through a process called horizontal gene transfer.

Scientists have used natural antibiotics as the basis for developing over-the-counter antibiotics that prevent bacterial infections in humans and animals. However, some of the bacteria that cause these infections from water and soil may have already acquired the genes that give them resistance.

Initially, these resistant strains form a small part of the bacterial population in the host, but change with increasing antibiotic use. This drug destroys susceptible strains, eliminating competition and allowing resistant strains to multiply and propagate quickly. Also, if you administer the wrong dose of antibiotics or use them improperly because of the wrong illness, the good bacteria in our body will be destroyed and so-called resistant to many antibiotics. It may facilitate the establishment of super bugs.

These drug-resistant strains can spread in hospitals, communities, livestock and poultry farms through sewage, contaminated water, surfaces, and food, or through direct contact. As more people have super bugs and the effects of current antibiotics are becoming more and more ineffective, it can mean longer hospital stays, higher medical costs and more deaths.It’s especially worrisome Low and middle income countries affected by imbalance Limited access to clean water and sanitation facilities may facilitate self-medication if there is quality medical care, over-the-counter sales of generic antibiotics and costly consultations.

How COVID-19 can exacerbate multidrug-resistant infections

and Global survey Thirty-five of the 56 countries conducted by the World Health Organization in late 2020 reported increased prescriptions for antibiotics during a pandemic. In one country, doctors prescribed antibiotics in almost all COVID-19 cases, and in other countries, self-medication with these drugs was rampant.

Doctors prescribed antibiotics, including azithromycin, doxycycline, fluoroquinolone, cephalosporins, and carbapenem, to hospitalized COVID-19 patients. They often used broad-spectrum antibiotics to destroy some types of bacteria, including beneficial ones, Several the study It has been suggested that co-infection or secondary infection rates of bacteria or fungi in COVID-19 patients are less than 20%. Outpatients also often have mild COVID-19 symptoms and are prescribed antibiotics such as azithromycin and doxycycline preemptively.