How antibiotics influence the resistance of bacteria, when and when not to take them, and how to make them work are some of the questions about these controversial drugs. To find out all the answers, we have consulted with Dr. Rafael Cantón, member of the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC).
Resistant bacteria
According to the Spanish Society for Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC), more than 26,000 Spaniards will die this year in the month following having suffered an infection by a multi-resistant bacteria, 22 times more than in traffic accidents.
- How it is produced. By taking antibiotics, bacteria mutate and modify their genetic material to try to survive. The result is that in case of infection, these resistant bacteria do not respond to treatment, which makes the infections last longer, and increases complications and mortality.
- Why mortality increases. Antibiotic resistance comes naturally, but in recent years the problem has accelerated a lot, while the development of new effective antibiotics has not been as fast.
What are we doing wrong
On the one hand, the improper use of antibiotics (both abusing them and not taking them at the right dose or time) favors the development of resistant bacteria.
- In the food. Also the animals whose meat or derivatives we consume are treated with antibiotics in an abusive way.
- There are no specialists. The SEIMC urgently calls for the specialty of Infectious Diseases in Spain, because just as a cardiologist deals with a heart attack, a specialist should be the one who treats serious and complex infections.
What solution is there
Work is underway to develop new families of antibiotics that are modifications of those that exist at this time. Although the most effective way to eliminate these resistant bacteria would be to create antibiotics that act differently from the current ones, something that is not being totally achieved; And yet, before these antibiotics can be used in patients, they need to pass several years of testing.
- Encouraging results. An international work, in which the Pasteur Institute and researchers from the Polytechnic University of Madrid participate, has managed to design a new type of programmable antibiotics (tested for now only on animals), tailor-made to attack only "bad" bacteria or resistant and that, however, do not affect the good bacteria.
- Vaccinations An alternative to antibiotic treatments that can help prevent resistance to these drugs is the use of bacterial vaccines. These, in addition to attacking the bacteria that cause the disease, also destroy the microorganisms that are more resistant to antibiotics.
What is the correct way to take antibiotics?
The first and most important advice is to use antibiotics only when your doctor tells you to. But you also have to take other things into account:
- Duration. Once you have started a treatment with antibiotics, you should take it for as long as the doctor has told you. Even if you notice that the symptoms have improved, you should not abandon the treatment before.
- Frequency. If the doctor tells you to take it every 8 hours, do not take it 3 times a day coinciding with the main meals. It is not the same, and the effectiveness of the drug may be affected.
- Interactions If you are taking any other drugs, tell your doctor because they could interfere with each other. On the other hand, allow at least a couple of hours to pass before drinking milk or other dairy products, coffee and other caffeinated drinks, or citrus fruits.
- Fasting or not? It will depend on the type of antibiotic, so check with your doctor.
Resistant bacteria are easily transmitted (a sneeze…) and can affect us all
Take them only when necessary.
Many times we take antibiotics to treat problems that do not respond to these types of drugs:
- Fever. It is a symptom that your body is facing an infection, but that does not mean that you necessarily need to resort to antibiotics.
- Flu. Both the flu and colds are caused by viruses, so it will be useless to take antibiotics.
- Otitis. In the case of ENT infections (pharyngitis, tonsillitis, otitis, etc.), only some require antibiotics. For example, only 15-25% of pharyngitis in adults are bacterial in origin.
Council Clara
take care of your microbiota
Antibiotics destroy all bacteria, without distinguishing whether they are good or harmful, which harms the microbiota. You can counteract this by taking probiotics like yogurt and fermented ones.
