Frequent and unpretentious use of antibiotics can promote mutations and mechanisms of adaptation and resistance to antibiotics, making treatment more difficult and time-consuming because the drug has no effect on bacteria, making the patient’s clinical condition worse.
When an antibiotic is effective, bacteria can reduce its multiplication rate or remove them from the body.However, when a bacteria becomes resistant to a particular antibiotic, it can proliferate regardless of the presence of the antibiotic and cause more serious infections that are difficult to treat.
- In most cases.
- The bacterium is resistant to a single antimicrobial.
- As in the case of Enterococcus sp.
- For example.
- Which is resistant to vancomycin; however.
- It is possible to test a resistant multibiotic bacterium called a superbug.
- Such as the carbapenemse-producing Klebsiella.
- Also known as KPC.
In the case of a bacterial infection with symptoms, your doctor usually recommends the use of antibiotics to treat the infection and eliminate the bacteria, however, when treatment is not done as recommended by your doctor, the bacteria may develop mechanisms of resistance to the antibiotic used., which can stay longer in the body and cause more serious infections, such as sepsis, that occurs when the bacteria reaches the bloodstream.
This resistant bacterium is able to multiply more easily and thus transmit its resistance genes to other generations.In addition, new mutations in the genetic material of these bacteria may occur, resulting in superbacteria, which are those that are resistant to more than one type of antibiotic.
The more resistant the bacteria, the harder it will be to treat them because fewer antibiotics are available to treat this infection.
Resistant bacteria are more easily found in a hospital setting due to the procedures patients undergo, the frequent use of antibiotics, people’s immune systems, and the longer duration of exposure to infectious and antimicrobial agents due to the prolonged hospital stay.
Among the main resistant bacteria are Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPC), Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is resistant to methicillin, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which are resistant to carbemic antibiotics. Learn about the main multi-resistant bacteria.
Antibiotic resistance can be easily avoided with simple actions, such as:
In addition, it is important to maintain good hand hygiene, wash food well before preparing it, have up-to-date vaccinations and simply contact hospitalized people using protective elements, such as masks and gowns, for example. taking medications without medical advice.
To avoid bacterial resistance, it is also important that hospitals investigate the most prevalent bacteria in the hospital and critical hospitalization units and determine the susceptibility and resistance profile of these microorganisms.
Once the most common bacteria and their characteristics are known, strategies can be adopted to prevent infections during hospitalization. The training and ongoing training of healthcare professionals in the hospital is essential to prevent intrahospital infections and the development of resistant microorganisms.Infections acquired in the hospital.