Superbugs are on the rise. How can we prevent antibiotics from becoming obsolete?

Antibiotics treat infections caused by bacteria — but bacteria can evolve to resist these essential drugs. Over time, the misuse of antibiotics has rapidly accelerated the spread of such resistant germs, and widely used antibiotics are becoming less effective.

The goal is to deter doctors from prescribing antibiotics for viral infections, which the drugs can't treat, or giving a patient a"broad-spectrum" antibiotic capable of killing many bacteria when a"narrow-spectrum" drug would work, for example. Broad-spectrum antibiotics pose a particular problem because they push a wide range of bacteria in the body to evolve resistance.

The hope is that, by reigning in the misuse of antibiotics, we can reduce the rate that people get infected with multidrug-resistant organisms , while also reducing the opportunities for new MDROs to emerge and spread between people. Speeding up diagnosis is another way to help doctors pick the right antibiotic, or skip one altogether for viral infections. When faced with a sick patient with a yet-undetermined diagnosis, clinicians often"err on the side of caution" by prescribing antibiotics that may not be needed, Gohil said."That's one of the things that hobbles us when we're trying to make decisions, is that uncertainty.

Education Education Latest News, Education Education Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Sci-fi books are rare in school even though they help kids better understand scienceScience fiction can lead people to be more cautious about the potential consequences of innovations. It can help people think critically about the ethics of science. Researchers have also found that sci-fi serves as a positive influence on how people view science. Science fiction scholar Istvan Csicsery-Ronay calls this 'science-fictional habits of mind.'
Source: physorg_com - 🏆 388. / 55 Read more »