Antibiotic resistance, which can turn common ailments into
killers, has reached dangerous levels worldwide, the World Health
Organization warned Monday, saying users still know too little about how
antibiotics work. Antibiotic resistance happens when bugs become immune
to existing drugs, allowing minor injuries and common infections to
become deadly.
Overuse and misuse of the drugs increases this resistance, but WHO
also published a survey of 10,000 people worldwide showing a range of
dangerous misconceptions about the threat, which are allowing it to
prosper.
“The rise of antibiotic resistance is a global health crisis, and
governments now recognise it as one of the greatest challenges for
public health today,” WHO chief Margaret Chan said in a statement,
stressing that resistance was “reaching dangerously high levels in all
parts of the world.”
“Antibiotic resistance is compromising our ability to treat
infectious diseases and undermining many advances in medicine,” she
warned. WHO’s 12-country survey published Monday found that nearly two
thirds of all those questioned (64 percent) believe wrongly that
antibiotics can be used to treat colds and flu, despite the fact that
the drugs have no impact on viruses.
The survey, conducted in Barbados, China, Egypt, India,Indonesia,
Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, Serbia, South Africa,Sudan and Vietnam, also
showed that 66 percent believe that there is no risk of antibiotic
resistance for people who take their antibiotics as prescribed.
And nearly half (44 percent) thought antibiotic resistance was only a
problem for people who take the drugs regularly, when in fact, anyone,
of any age and anywhere, can get an antibiotic-resistant infection.
Around a third meanwhile believed it was best to stop an antibiotic
treatment as soon as they felt better, rather than completing the
prescribed course of treatment, the survey showed.
– ‘Urgent’ to improve understanding –
“The findings of this survey point to the urgent need to improve
understanding around antibiotic resistance,” Keiji Fukuda, the UN
chief’s special representative on antimicrobial resistance, said in the
statement. Along with its survey, WHO launched a campaign Monday called
“Antibiotics: Handle with care”, aimed at raising awareness about the
problem, and correcting such misconceptions.
“This campaign is just one of the ways we are working with
governments, health authorities and other partners to reduce antibiotic
resistance,” Fukuda said. “One of the biggest health challenges of the
21st century will require global behaviour change by individuals and
societies,” he added.
A WHO report in April showed there were “major gaps” in all regions
of the world in addressing the problem and reining in overuse and misuse
of antibiotics. The UN health agency has warned that without urgent
action, the world could be headed for “a post-antibiotic era” in which
common infections and minor injuries that have long been treatable once
again become killers.
The survey published Monday showed a dire lack of understanding of
the problem and widespread dangerous behaviour. Broken down by country,
the survey for instance showed that five percent of Chinese respondents
who had taken antibiotics in the past six months had purchased them on
the Internet, while the same percentage in Nigeria had bought them from a
stall or hawker.
In Russia, only 56 percent of those who had taken antibiotics in the past year had them prescribed by a doctor or nurse.
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