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What Is Antibiotic Resistance And How Does It Occur

Enhancing Healthcare Team Outcomes

What causes antibiotic resistance? – Kevin Wu

In 2017, the Joint Commission announced new stewardship standards requiring every hospital in the United States to have a stewardship program. However, many hospitals have yet to adopt these programs, and many institutions fear that smaller hospitals may not have the ability to develop effective stewardship programs. There are a few possible solutions to overcome these barriers such as joining a larger healthcare system to utilize their resources, pooling resources from other hospitals, and facilitating the use of their state’s health department resources. Stewardship is a function of a health system that is usually managed by the government to oversee and regulate healthcare. Antimicrobial stewardship programs require a systematic measurement and coordinated interventions between clinicians, infection control personnel, pharmacists, and informational technology designed to promote the optimal use of antibiotic agents, including their choice, dosing, route, and duration of administration.

Drug Resistance In Bacteria

For common bacterial infections, including urinary tract infections, sepsis, sexually transmitted infections, and some forms of diarrhoea, high rates of resistance against antibiotics frequently used to treat these infections have been observed world-wide, indicating that we are running out of effective antibiotics. For example, the rate of resistance to ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic commonly used to treat urinary tract infections, varied from 8.4% to 92.9% for Escherichia coliand from 4.1% to 79.4% for Klebsiella pneumoniae in countries reporting to the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System .

Klebsiella pneumoniae are common intestinal bacteria that can cause life-threatening infections. Resistance in K. pneumoniae to last resort treatment has spread to all regions of the world. K. pneumoniae is a major cause of hospital-acquired infections such as pneumonia, bloodstream infections, and infections in newborns and intensive-care unit patients. In some countries, carbapenem antibiotics do not work in more than half of the patients treated for K. pneumoniae infections due to resistance.

Resistance to fluoroquinolone antibiotics in E. coli, used for the treatment of urinary tract infections, is widespread.

There are countries in many parts of the world where this treatment is now ineffective in more than half of patients.

Poor Hygiene And Infection Prevention And Control

Poor hygiene and poor infection prevention and control can:

  • provide more opportunity for resistant bacteria and other germs to spread
  • make more people sick and increase the need for antibiotics.

Hand hygiene is the most important way of preventing the spread of infections including antibiotic resistant infections.

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How Can We Prevent Antibiotic Resistance

There are many ways that drug-resistant infections can be prevented: immunization, safe food preparation, handwashing, and using antibiotics as directed and only when necessary. In addition, preventing infections also prevents the spread of resistant bacteria.

Is antibiotic resistance inherited?

Any antibiotic use can lead to antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics kill germs like bacteria and fungi, but the resistant survivors remain. Resistance traits can be inherited generation to generation. They can also pass directly from germ to germ by way of mobile genetic elements.

How do you test for antibiotic resistance?

Can we stop antibiotic resistance?

Because antibiotic resistance occurs as part of a natural process in which bacteria evolve, it can be slowed but not stopped. Therefore, we will always need new antibiotics to keep up with resistant bacteria as well as new diagnostic tests to track the development of resistance.

How can we solve antibiotic resistance?

To help fight antibiotic resistance and protect yourself against infection:

  • Dont take antibiotics unless youre certain you need them. An estimated 30% of the millions of prescriptions written each year are not needed.
  • Finish your pills.
  • Stay safe in the hospital.
  • Can you test for antibiotic resistance?

    What are some examples of antibiotic resistance?

    Has The Problem Of Antibiotic Resistance Worsened Over Time

    Antibiotic resistance: WHO reveals woeful misconceptions about global ...

    Resistance to antibiotics was recorded even before the first clinical use of penicillin in the early 1940 s. In the intervening years, resistance to all classes of antibiotics has emerged, and there are no antibiotics for which resistance does not exist. There are two general strategies for resistance. One comprises mechanisms that transfer resistance vertically from a bacterium to its progeny. Examples are mutations in chromosomal genes that give rise to drug-insensitive products, such as the point mutations in the genes encoding DNA gyrase or topoisomerase IV that result in resistance to fluoroquinolone antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin. The second strategy includes the actions of genes that can be transmitted both vertically to progeny and horizontally to other bacteria, even those of different genera. These genes are located on mobile genetic elements such as plasmids, which can carry one or more resistance genes. Many of the -lactamase genes that confer resistance to the penicillin, cephalosporin, penem and monobactam antibiotics are located on such elements, as is the glycopeptide-resistance gene cluster vanHAX, which provides resistance to vancomycin. The prevalence and mobility of resistance genes in previously sensitive pathogenic bacteria has now reached crisis levels in many cases because new antibiotics are no longer being developed at a rate that can keep pace with microbial evolution.

    In the past two decades we have witnessed:

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    What About New Antibiotics

    The growing problem of resistance fuels a continuous need for new antibiotic drugs. The enterobacteria that produce carbapenemase are just one example of antibiotic-resistant enterobacteria. Other Gram-negative pathogens resistant to virtually all antibiotics include multi-drug resistant A. baumannii and P. aeruginosa. The expanding problem of MRSA, and the global challenge of extensively drug-resistant M. tuberculosis , require new therapies.

    There are some promising new candidates on the horizon, especially for the treatment of infections caused by Gram-positive pathogens such as MRSA and enterococci. As already mentioned, two new drugs active against this microbial spectrum – daptomycin and linezolid – have been introduced in the past decade. Tigecycline, a third-generation semi-synthetic tetracycline antibiotic approved in 2005, also has activity against MRSA. The semi-synthetic glycopeptide antibiotic telavancin recently received approval in the United States and the fifth-generation cephalosporin ceftobiprole is available in some European countries and Canada. However, there are few candidates in late-stage clinical trials suitable for the problem of Gram-negative pathogens. Here, often the choice of last resort is colistin, an antibiotic discovered more than 50 years ago and seldom used in the past because of adverse affects, including kidney toxicity however, it is now increasingly used.

    What Is Antimicrobial Resistance And How Does It Happen

    This article explains, what is antimicrobial resistance and how it happens? It occurs in microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses or parasites when they develop an ability to disable the effects of a drug designed to kill them. study the article and get to know how antibiotics are becoming less effective in killing harmful microorganisms and gain insights into how you can get expert essay writing help.

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    B Reinvigorating Drug Development Pathways And Bringing New Antibiotics Into Market

    The need for new antibiotics was illustrated in the TUN report. Among the aspects that need addressing is the failure of new drug discovery . In addition, increasing levels of bureaucracy and lack of clarity within regulatory frameworks and variation in the clinical trials process in different countries hinder the development of new agents. Several antimicrobials have failed to reach the market at this final hurdle. Lack of international harmonization, continual changes to processes and ineffective pathways for dialogue between organizations, industry and regulators are all significant deterrents to the research and development of new antibiotics.

    However, it is clear that there is now political engagement with this issue and many initiatives are now ongoing around the world. In 2003, the IDSA launched the Bad Bugs, No Drugs campaign with recommendations to Congress, the Food & Drug Administration and the National Institute for Allergies & Infectious Diseases. In 2009, the EU, under the presidency of the Swedish Government, launched the Innovative Incentives for Effective Antibacterials programme. In 2010, the IDSA produced a report entitled The 10 × 20 Initiative: Pursuing a Global Commitment to Develop 10 New Antibacterial Drugs by 2020. This initiative aspires to develop 10 new antibiotic agents by 2020.

    How Can We Prevent Or Control Antibiotic Resistance

    How can we solve the antibiotic resistance crisis? – Gerry Wright

    Antibiotic resistance is a serious emerging problem, but mitigation is possible.

    The WHO recommends that people adopt the following measures to help address the problem:

    • Use only prescription antibiotics.
    • Refrain from requesting antibiotics from healthcare professionals.
    • Follow the recommendations of healthcare professionals for antibiotics.
    • Avoid sharing or using leftover antibiotics.
    • Regularly wash hands to prevent infections.
    • Prepare food under strict hygienic conditions.
    • Avoid close contact with people who have infections.
    • Practice safer sex.

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    Where Does Resistance Come From

    Antibiotic resistance is the evolutionary response to the strong selective pressure that results from exposure to these compounds. The horizontal dissemination of resistance genes into bacterial species and genera that are not themselves intrinsically resistant, as well as the maintenance of resistance mutations vertically through populations is likely to be the result of contemporary use of these drugs in the clinic and on the farm. Support for this hypothesis is the infrequency of antibiotic resistance in collections of pathogenic bacteria that pre-date the antibiotic era.

    Furthermore, the genes and proteins responsible for resistance in environmental bacteria are homologous to those found circulating in pathogens, strongly suggesting contemporary horizontal gene transfer. Opportunistic pathogens with environmental reservoirs – for example, P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii – are highly drug resistant and have a remarkable capacity to acquire new resistance genes. The environment is therefore a large reservoir of potential resistance genes: the environmental ‘resistome’.

    Given the vast numbers of bacteria on the planet and the massive selection pressure provided by antibiotics, the movement of antibiotic-resistance elements from benign, but resistant, microbes into previously susceptible pathogens is simply a matter of time and opportunity.

    Ways That Bacteria Acquire Resistance

    There are two main ways that bacterial cells can acquire antibiotic resistance. One is through mutations that occur in the DNA of the cell during replication. The other way that bacteria acquire resistance is through horizontal gene transfer. There are three different ways in which this can occur, but in each case genetic material is transferred from antibiotic-resistant bacteria to other bacterial cells, making them resistant to antibiotics as well. Once bacterial cells acquire resistance, exposure to antibiotics kills off non-resistance bacteria, while the antibiotic-resistant bacteria proliferate.

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    What Is Antibiotic Resistance What Causes It

    Resistance to an antibiotic occurs when a microorganism is able to grow or survive in the presence of a concentration of antibiotic that is usually sufficient to inhibit or kill organisms of the same species. The terms susceptible and resistant relating to antibiotics are usually used in clinical practice to infer the likely success or failure of treatment. Resistance is more likely when the concentration required to inhibit or kill microorganisms exceeds that achievable in a patient.

    Microorganisms can be either intrinsically resistant to an antibiotic or develop resistance following exposure to that antibiotic . Resistance can develop as a result of mutation or direct transfer of genes encoding a resistance mechanism. Transfer of resistance genes can occur by a variety of mechanisms including conjugation , transformation or transduction . Genetic material, including antibiotic resistance genes, can spread very effectively between bacteria, even those of unrelated species.

    The efficiency and rate at which a resistant phenotype spreads within a previously susceptible species are unpredictable. For example, the staphylococcal -lactamase gene is very successful in Staphylococcus aureus, with similar genes in Haemophilus influenzae and many Enterobacteriaceae, but they have never spread widely in enterococci. Fortunately, vancomycin resistance genes found in enterococci remain rare in S. aureus.

    How Does Resistance Occur

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    Antibiotic resistance is a natural evolutionary phenomenon that occurs when bacteria react to the presence of antibiotics. Bacteria, not humans, become antibiotic-resistant. When exposed to the antibiotics, the weaker organisms in the bacteria die off, leaving only the resistant organisms behind. Resistance to the antibiotics can even be passed down to their offspring, and continue to infect humans, making infections harder than non-resistant bacteria to treat.

    When insufficient antibiotics are taken, not all the bacteria from the virus are killed off, leaving room for them to grow and become resistant. Conversely, when a surplus of antibiotics is taken, bacteria can also become resistant as antibiotics targets both good and bad bacteria. Killing off the good bacteria lowers the defense against the bad bacteria, making them stronger and eventually, antibiotic-resistant.

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    Mechanism For Antimicrobial Resistance

  • Impermeability:

  • Pumping out :

    The efflux pumps are proteins of the membrane that are located in the cytoplasm and are responsible for exporting the antibiotics of the cell. When an antimicrobial agent tries to enter, it is expelled by the efflux mechanisms before they can reach their target. All classes of antibiotics are susceptible to this type of mechanism with the exception of polymyxin .

  • Modification:

    Target site changes due to unexpected mutations of a bacterial gene located on the chromosome. These mutations prevent the binding of the antibiotic and the target site from taking place .

  • Antibiotic inactivation:

    There are three main enzymes that are responsible for the inactivation of antibiotics: -lactamases, aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes, and chloramphenicol acetyltransferases. These enzymes are responsible for completely inactivating the function of the antibiotic inside the cell .

  • Antibiotic Resistance: How Does Antibiotic Resistance Spread

    This infographic explains how antibiotic resistance spreads in animal farming, in the community, in healthcare facilities and through travel.Antibiotic resistance is a natural occurrence caused by mutations in bacterias genes. However, inappropriate use of antibiotics accelerates the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. When exposed to antibiotics, susceptible bacteria are killed while excessive antibiotic use or their use for the wrong reasons can cause bacteria to become resistant and continue to grow and multiply. These resistant bacteria may spread and cause infections in other people.The infographic was developed as part of the ECDC effort to support national campaigns on prudent antibiotic use.

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    What Is An Antibiotic

    Antibiotics, also known as antimicrobial drugs, are drugs that fight infections caused by bacteria. Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic, penicillin, in 1927. After the first use of antibiotics in the 1940s, they transformed medical care and dramatically reduced illness and death from infectious diseases.

    The term “antibiotic” originally referred to a natural compound produced by a fungus or another microorganism that kills bacteria that cause disease in humans or animals. Some antibiotics may be synthetic compounds that can also kill or inhibit the growth of microbes. Technically, the term “antimicrobial agent” refers to both natural and synthetic compounds however, many people use the word “antibiotic” to refer to both.

    Although antibiotics have many beneficial effects, their use has contributed to the problem of antibiotic resistance.

    Mutations Can Provide Resistance To Antibiotics

    Antibiotic Resistance, Animation

    Mutations are one way for bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics. Some spontaneous mutations may make the bacterium resistant to an antibiotic . If we were to treat the bacterial population with that specific antibiotic, only the resistant bacteria will be able to multiply the antibiotic selects for them. These bacteria can now increase in numbers and the end result is a population of mainly resistant bacteria.

    It is important to understand that selection of antibiotic resistant bacteria can occur anywhere an antibiotic is present at a selective concentration. When we treat an infection, selection can occur at any site in the body to which the antibiotic reaches. Thus, the antibiotic can select for resistance genes and mechanisms in both pathogenic bacteria and in commensal bacteria living in the body that have nothing to do with the infection in question. By using narrow-spectrum antibiotics , the risk of selecting for antibiotic resistance in the commensal flora decreases.

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    Why Is Antimicrobial Resistance A Global Concern

    The emergence and spread of drug-resistant pathogens that have acquired new resistance mechanisms, leading to antimicrobial resistance, continues to threaten our ability to treat common infections. Especially alarming is the rapid global spread of multi- and pan-resistant bacteria that cause infections that are not treatable with existing antimicrobial medicines such as antibiotics.

    The clinical pipeline of new antimicrobials is dry. In 2019 WHO identified 32 antibiotics in clinical development that address the WHO list of priority pathogens, of which only six were classified as innovative. Furthermore, a lack of access to quality antimicrobials remains a major issue. Antibiotic shortages are affecting countries of all levels of development and especially in health- care systems.

    Antibiotics are becoming increasingly ineffective as drug-resistance spreads globally leading to more difficult to treat infections and death. New antibacterials are urgently needed for example, to treat carbapenem-resistant gram-negative bacterial infections as identified in the WHO priority pathogen list. However, if people do not change the way antibiotics are used now, these new antibiotics will suffer the same fate as the current ones and become ineffective.

    The cost of AMR to national economies and their health systems is significant as it affects productivity of patients or their caretakers through prolonged hospital stays and the need for more expensive and intensive care.

    Why Should I Be Concerned About Antibiotic Resistance

    Antibiotic resistance has been called one of the world’s most pressing public health problems. Almost every type of bacteria has become stronger and less responsive to antibiotic treatment when it is really needed. These antibiotic-resistant bacteria can quickly spread to family members, schoolmates, and co-workers – threatening the community with a new strain of the infectious disease that is more difficult to cure and more expensive to treat. For this reason, antibiotic resistance is among CDC’s top concerns.

    Antibiotic resistance can cause significant danger and suffering for children and adults who have common infections, once easily treatable with antibiotics. Microbes can develop resistance to specific medicines. A common misconception is that a person’s body becomes resistant to specific drugs. However, it is microbes, not people, that become resistant to the drugs.

    If a microbe is resistant to many drugs, treating the infections it causes can become difficult or even impossible. Someone with an infection that is resistant to a certain medicine can pass that resistant infection to another person. In this way, a hard-to-treat illness can be spread from person to person. In some cases, the illness can lead to serious disability or even death.

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