Is Antibiotic Resistance Still a Future Threat?
In the early 20th century, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, which revolutionized medicine and saved millions of lives. Unfortunately, bacteria are intelligent microorganisms that continuously develop mechanisms to resist antibiotics, enabling them to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions. What largely contributes to this is the misuse of antibiotics.
Misuse of antibiotics includes:
1. Using an antibiotic when it is not needed.
2. Not completing the prescribed antibiotic course or stopping it as soon as symptoms improve.
3. 3. Not following the instructions provided by the doctor and pharmacist for using the medication.
Global statistics indicate that antibiotic resistance causes approximately 700,000 deaths annually, and this number is expected to increase to 10 million by 2050. It is noteworthy that the majority of common respiratory infections are viral, not bacterial, with studies showing that 80% of upper respiratory tract infections are viral.
Recently, antibiotic resistance has risen more than expected, making it a current threat to society, not just a future one.
In society, there are the elderly, children, and those with weakened immune systems. If the misuse of antibiotics continues, we are helping bacteria cause harm to them — and to ourselves — in the future as well.
Antibiotic resistance has become a real threat we are facing now, and we must address it correctly, not just as a future threat we were anticipating!
Therefore, we must unite as a society to spread proper awareness about the use of antibiotics and contribute to reducing the risk of bacterial infections in the future.
