[lyka_candelario]

This year, scientists discover antibiotic-resistant superbugs spreading even through our food and water supply. Its threat, according to a British chief medical officer, can rank with terrorism and global warming.

It is also something to be feared since it takes years to produce an antibiotic while these superbugs are arising out of sources that might be inevitable for us to come across.

Such food sources are primarily from sea foods from Southeast Asia where 5 percent of a test done for prawns from Vietnam contained antibiotics and only 5 percent of these imported goods are being traditionally screened. This can potentially be very harmful.

Poultry and livestock are also in this spectrum. Farmers may have abused the use of antibiotics due to the fear of losing more of their animals when one is possibly infected with a bacterial disease. Aside from therapeutic antibiotics, there are companies who also use growth-promoting antibiotics, which makes resistance more of a problem.

For examples of such bacteria, we’ve got the well-known Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), but others are already most likely spreading. Another is the multi-drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is possibly caused by the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM1), an enzyme making bacteria resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics. Strains of superbug gonorrhea have also emerged and we know of Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE).

Such is the case because of the unnecessary prescribing or sometimes the overprescribing of antibiotics, when patients do not complete the entire course of their prescription, and when hygiene and infection control aren’t regularly practiced.

It is a serious concern when some bacteria become resistant to easily available antibiotics since new ones need years to be approved. For the majority, it is like a “ticking time bomb”, but for some, they believe the bomb has already exploded. The continuous lack of antibiotics and the spreading of these infection-causing resistant bugs will later on make most diseases virtually impossible to treat.

As health care professionals and even as regular citizens, we must observe prevention and transmission precautions to at least minimize the spread of disease.