Drug resistant bacteria

The term drug resistant bacteria is used in medical practice for characterizing the ability of microscopic organisms to resist high concentrations of various active substances in the body.

Drug resistant bacteria definition can also be understood as the preservation of the protozoa vital processes after antibiotics administration in therapeutic doses.

Antibacterial drugs penetrate well into the body tissues and have a selective effect on the bacterial population. Modern antibiotics interfere with the metabolism, stop the reproduction and kill bacteria without harming the cells, organs or tissues.

Although bacteria lack intelligence, they have their protective mechanisms. This is due to the unique ability of drug resistant bacteria to evolve. Pathogens have two types of drug resistance: acquired and natural (intrinsic).

  • Natural resistance of bacteria can result from the ability of drugs to penetrate in a bacterial cell, or intrinsic ability of the microorganism to synthesize enzymes that inactivate the antimicrobial agents.
  • Acquired drug bacterial resistance is associated with their rapid adaptation to environmental conditions. Bacteria are able to mutate rapidly, due to which new strains are formed. These are capable of remaining viable in high concentrations of active substances, which used to be hazardous for them earlier.

List of drug resistant bacteria increases every year. It is especially clearly observed in recent decades. Scientists explain this phenomenon by a significant increase in the number of people, using antibiotics.

For example, more and more importance is given to the increase in such drug resistant bacteria, as neisseria gonorrhoeae, staphylococci, pneumococci, and pseudomonas aeruginosa. Diseases, caused by such strains, are characterized by longer and more difficult treatment.

Ultimately, it has a great social value and economic damage. People spend more money to the medication, at this time the risks of the spread of new microorganisms strains in the human population increase. The consequences of these bacteria spread are hard to predict.

Efforts to combat resistant organisms should be a priority for global health. By the prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria in the world, the following separation on different scales is possible:

  • Global
  • Regional
  • Local

Some types of bacteria are more common and have the best conditions for growth and reproduction in warm countries. The frequency and types of antibiotics is different in various countries, so the statistics for drug resistant bacteria in the United States, India, Japan and Africa will also be different.

The World Health Organization has proposed the following measures for controlling the impending crisis in the treatment of many infectious diseases:

  • More careful supervision over the use of antimicrobial agents
  • Control over the optimum period of drugs use
  • Reducing the amount of antibiotics, used in livestock
  • Disease prevention and control
  • Support for innovation and new treatment methods

Despite the fact that anti-microbial agents are the primary treatment for many infections, they are used improperly, and usually excessively in the majority of countries in the world. This increases the drug resistant bacteria and treatment in hospitals or at home becomes difficult.

Australia and other countries around the world, specializing in animal husbandry, make significant efforts in legislative restrictions for antibiotics use in animals. The list includes such antibiotics, as cephalosporins, broad-spectrum penicillins, lincosamides, tetracyclines, aminoglycosides and glycopeptides.

Since the number of drug resistant bacteria is increasing steadily, the disturbing fact is that no prototypes of new drugs appear lately. Over the past 30 years, only two new classes of antibiotics were discovered – cyclic lipopeptides and oxazolidinones.

Innovative strategies and new technologies are required to address the lack of a new generation of antibiotics. They must resist the emergence of bacteria, resistant to practically all known antibacterial agents.