Why antibiotics are "dangerous friends"

Autumn and winter are the peak seasons for colds. Whenever people catch a cold, have a fever, or have a sore throat, and the symptoms do not improve after a day or two, they will take some antibiotics to relieve the symptoms. No matter if they have a fever, cough, or headache, they will think of taking two pills. Some people even regard these antibiotics as a panacea for treating diseases, which has largely led to the misuse and abuse of antibiotics.

Since Fleming discovered penicillin, antibiotics have been used for more than 80 years, saving countless lives and making important contributions to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases and agricultural production. They are known as "one of the major medical discoveries of the 20th century". As more and more antibiotics are used in human medicine and agricultural production, the problem of bacterial resistance has become more and more serious, posing a threat to human health. As early as 1945, Fleming warned the world in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech that bacterial resistance could destroy the miracle created by antibiotics, and this warning is gradually becoming a reality.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America showed that the use of antibiotics worldwide increased by 65% ​​between 2000 and 2015. Due to the overuse and abuse of antibiotics, bacterial resistance has become increasingly serious. The combined use of multiple antibiotics has promoted the emergence of multi-drug resistance and even the emergence of "super bacteria". On the other hand, the research and development of new antibiotics has become increasingly difficult, which has put the infected population at great risk of death. There have been many deaths caused by super bacteria infections worldwide. The G8 summit held in London in 2013 pointed out that the problem of antibiotic resistance has become a global crisis as serious as global warming and the water crisis. In 2015, the World Health Organization listed the problem of bacterial antibiotic resistance as one of the biggest challenges facing mankind in the field of health in the 21st century. If the abuse of antibiotics is not improved, by 2050, antibiotic-resistant infections may become the leading cause of death among the global population.

How to deal with the global crisis of antibiotic resistance? Controlling and regulating the use of antibiotics at the source is a necessary and key part of the current work of preventing and controlling resistance. To this end, relevant policies, regulations and measures have been formulated and issued at the global and national levels. In September 2014, the US government proposed that antibiotic resistance should be addressed from a national strategic perspective. In May 2015, the World Health Organization released a global report calling for the establishment of a global antibiotic resistance monitoring system. In order to curb the development and spread of bacterial resistance and protect the health of the people, China has also invested a lot of manpower and funds, and formulated the National Action Plan for Containing Bacterial Resistance (2016-2020) in 2016, in order to effectively control the generation and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes.

As ordinary patients, what we can do is to strengthen the awareness of standardized use of antibiotics and use them scientifically and prudently. When you catch a cold or fever again, you must first figure out whether it is a bacterial cold or a viral cold, and then consider whether to take antibiotics or drink more hot water. In fact, the cause of colds is mostly viruses, and antibiotics cannot kill viruses. The real cure depends on one's own immune system. When using antibiotics, patients should do the following: First, antibiotics should only be used when diagnosed with bacterial infection by a professional doctor; second, take the medicine on time according to the doctor's instructions, stop the medicine in time, and don't stop it when you want to, so that the remaining bacteria take the opportunity to evolve themselves and develop drug resistance; third, pay attention to medication safety, and it is strictly forbidden to drink alcohol while taking cephalosporin antibiotics.

I hope everyone can use antibiotics with caution, otherwise it will no longer be a guardian of health, and bacterial infections will become untreatable.