Antimicrobial resistance
| By Michelle Currie
Post-antibiotic apocalypse with
the ‘Superbug’
24 BIOTECHNOLOGY FOCUS April/May 2018
E
ver consider a world where surgery was no longer an option? It is the unfortunate truth that if society does not slow the progression rate of antimicrobial resistance, life as we have come to know it will no longer be our future. Antimicrobial resistance threatens the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi. Without such means of effective treatment, it will compromise therapies that have been used for decades in healthcare and puts society in a very precarious position. Treatments such as major surgery or chemotherapy may fade into the background. As we stand on the precipice of a postantibiotic apocalypse, this global concern has researchers all over the world clamouring to find a solution before this issue gets out of hand. Kevin Schwartz, an infection prevention and control and antimicrobial stewardship physician from Public Health Ontario is one of those researchers seeking a strategy. “Antimicrobial resistance is going to be one of the biggest future challenges and it really threatens the way that we practice medicine,” says Kevin Schwartz, also an assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. “We take for granted some of the modern advances of technology that we will really jeopardize if the trend of antimicrobial resistance continues.” Antimicrobial resistance happens when microorganisms change from exposure to antimicrobial drugs. It is a natural process that happens over time, but, unfortunately, that timeline has been accelerated due to the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in people and animals. Whether it stems from prescribing patients’ antibiotics for things such as a cold or flu, or when they are given as growth promoters in animals or used to prevent disease in healthy animals, the truth is that we need to find a solution to contend with these “superbugs” – and fast. Antimicrobial resistant-microbes are found in people, animals, food, and the environment (water, soil, and air.) They can transfer from person to person, from person to animal and animal to person – that includes food of an animal origin – and is present in every country worldwide.
