Antibiotics are used to prevent or treat infections. But first let me describe the literal warfare that happens in a human body. When an enemy such as a bug enters a human body either through food or air droplets with a high preference for blood, it can cause infections.

As a result, the body mobilises lots of blood cells to fight the bugs (enemy) responsible for the infection. This ‘scuffle’ causes fevers and sometimes change in the health apparatus of the sick person forcing them to be bedridden for days.

Working with different sets of defensive mechanisms also known as immunity, the body has a way of defending an already known infection by memorizing it, while the reaction is a bit different if the bug is new.

In the beginning of the industrial age for instance, many people used to die of bugs or ‘bloodpoisoning’ as they used to refer to it those days. Similarly in the Third World, many more people used to die from malaria than today yet the causes are the same. The only difference lies in the treatment then and that of today.

Resistant antibiotics

The most recent antibiotic was made in 2003. However, just after one year, the bugs had found a way to resist the drugs. When Penicillin was created in 1943, there was a sigh of relief as it successfully treated various bug infections. However, that happiness would only last three years as many more bacteria had found a way to resist it. Of couse more helpful antibiotics have continued to be made but none has been effectively used without resistance for over 16 years.

In simple terms, resistance is a way the enemy (bacteria/bugs) has to survive in the human body. And that goes beyond its nutritional and reproductive needs. Unfortunately, there is no single antibiotic on the market that can be effective against resistance. According to a British review, damage caused by antibiotic resistance will claim close to 700,000 lives worldwide and is expected to multiply ten-fold in the next 30 years.

Resistance starts when a patient insists on a particular drug without necessarily knowing the cause of the infection. Furthermore, many drug manufacturing companies spend a lot of money and time trying to find variants of already existing drugs, that sadly face overwhelming resistance. Of course a blood culture would help determine the sensitivity and resistance of the sickening bug to the antibiotics but it needs more time. This is probably why many health professionals prefer to prescribe known powerful but weaker drugs.

Solution

The solution to drug resistance partly lies in thorough and continued research worldover. However, the fight should start with us. We can achieve that by knowing that not every cold or cough for instance needs Amoxycillin.

Keep in mind that infections are different in settings and course. Also, never insist on a drug without establishing the exact cause of your condition. May be your condition does not need an antibiotic.

Health officials also need to know that it is a patient’s right to ask about their treatments. Afterall, their lives are at stake.

The writer is a medical resident at the University Central Hospital of Kigali (CHUK)