Monday 5 May 2014

New Major Global Threat: Antibiotic Resistance

If I asked you a question “have you ever taken the antibiotic before?” I’m so sure that answer must be yes. Almost everyone had taken antibiotic drugs once in their lifetime. The examples of well-known antibiotic drugs in Thailand are Penicillin, Amoxicillin and Tetracycline, maybe you have heard some of them.

According to “Antibiotic resistance now 'global threat', WHO warns,” WHO reported that bacteria resistance to antibiotics is a major global threat in every part of the world, described as "post-antibiotic era," people began to suffer and die from a simple infection that used to be treatable. 

In case you don’t know, this is the very very bad news. Antibiotic resistance problems are so serious that they're comparable to threat of global warming. Imagine that the simple disease such as diarrhea could kill you easily without any drugs being effective. One of the most important reasons that the bacteria become more resistance to antibiotic drug is misuses, especially in Thailand. Taking antibiotics has and lot of cautions, it has to be taken exactly as prescribed. You can’t skip it or stop taking it before the doctor say you can. But a lot of people just stop taking it when their symptoms stop. They don’t know that the bacteria are not fully wiped out from their body yet, and it become the selection of the strongest strain of bacteria in their body. That’s why they become resistance to drugs.

In my second year of studying dentistry, there was a subject called “Infection Control” and the most important topic is antibiotic resistance. My teacher said that the incident is not happening only in Thailand, but to the entire world, especially poor country that people don’t have enough knowledge about medication and drug use. Doctors in Thailand have been concerned about this a long time ago, but to solve this problem, it requires more cooperation of all people. We’re trying to give people more information, improve diagnosis device and control the spreading. Although WHO has declared it a global threat, I don’t think it’s too late now. There’s always hope for the people who fight.

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Reference
Stephens, P. (2014, April 30). Antibiotic resistance now 'global threat', WHO warns. BBC News Health. Retrieved May 5, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27204988

3 comments:

  1. I think I'll leave Petch to suggest solutions. She is much better informed on this than I am.

    As I was reading her post, I thought that this was a great example of evolution in action, especially Petch's comment in paragraph 3 that it's the strongest strain that survive when people misuse antibiotics. It seems our fellow human beings are helping to breed diseases that can more efficiently kill us off.

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  2. I had herd my mother said about that for years. She said that more and more of her patient infected by Drug-resistance bacteria, make cure more harder and expensive . She also added that Ministry of Public Heath must do something nationwide.

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  3. Your post let me think that “have I ever used the antibiotic without the need”. And, I think my answer might be “No”. For my “No” answer, I believe that it was influenced by the doctor who treat me since I was young. Thanks to my doctor, he always told my family that No, No, No, it’s still not time to use the medicine. That’s true. After diagnosed by my doctor four or five days later, I generally got better without the medicine.

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