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Can you imagine a world without antibiotics?
You shouldn't have to.
But, over the past few decades, they've been losing their punch.
Make no mistake, we are at war!
While new antibiotic research is being conducted, bacteria continue to become more
resistant to antibiotics.
Sadly, the way we've been using antibiotics is partly to blame, so it's important to
know our enemy and what we can do to win this war.
Bacterial strains that are resistant to many types of antibiotics are called superbugs.
They infect over 2 million people across the U.S. each year and kill more than 23,000.
Common forms of superbugs include types of
tuberculosis, staph infections like MRSA, and gonorrhea.
Dr. Clifton Barry of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
conducts tuberculosis research.
It's inevitable that you develop resistance.
Ultimately, bacteria will always find a way around whatever your target is in the
bacteria that you're using to kill it.
Some bacteria are naturally resistant to antibiotics like cephalosporins, so these
bacteria will survive when you use that drug.
These bacteria multiply or share their resistance, so that the next time you
use the same drug, more bacteria survive.
Eventually, most of your targeted bacteria develop strategies, like making
beta lactamase, to fight a particular drug.
You need to use a new drug now, but then the process starts all over again.
Even if you can diagnose it properly, you would sort of get to a point where there's no
option anymore but to sort of wait it out and see what happens.
We have a strategy to keep you healthy.
Together, we can win this war with 1) prevention, 2) proper use, and 3) research.
You know we've managed to keep on top of bacterial drug resistance by being in this sort
of arms race for the last 50 years.
A lot of what the pharmaceutical industry does is very specialized, very automated, very
difficult to reproduce in a kind of a setting like NIH, and so our solution to that has
been to try to partner with drug companies.
It is for the public good that we have to prevent the big outbreaks of antibiotic
resistance organisms, and so a public research institute like NIH has
to take some of that responsibility.
That's what we're doing, but what can you do?
First, there's prevention.
You can help slow the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and help defend against
the superbugs by staying healthy and infection-free.
Wash your hands frequently, and don't share personal items.
Try not to spread infectious bacteria, and promote healthy bacteria in your system by
exercising and eating healthily.
Your second line of defense is using antibiotics properly.
Don't ask for antibiotics if your doctor doesn't recommend them --- they should only be
taken when necessary.
If you have a virus --- like a cold or a flu virus --- it can't be treated with antibiotics.
You can actually make your bacteria resistant that much faster by taking an unnecessary
course of antibiotics, and you also kill some healthy bacteria that help you
fight off other infections.
Be sure to take antibiotics exactly as directed, and finish all your medication, even if
you feel better.
This is the worst mistake you can make because there are still bacteria present, you
just don't feel it anymore, and if you don't actually finish the course of antibiotics,
there's a better chance that you're going to develop resistance.
This war affects us all, so be sure to do your part and help fight the spread of superbugs.
It is a public health problem, not a private health problem, and in that sense, we have
a responsibility to think about what the public health impact of our use of antibiotics is.
Infectious disease and drug resistant bacteria don't respect national boundaries.
This is not something we can keep contained in any way across national boundaries, so I
think we have a global responsibility to be very careful with how we use antibiotics
because your misuse can result in infections of other people maybe in this country, maybe
in another country, maybe your friends, maybe people you've never met
before who now have no option.
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