Transcript T--Northwestern--info_pamphlet

Are You Indirectly
Killing Infectious
Disease Patients?
How You Can Stop
Contributing to Antibiotic
Resistance
Antibiotics are a common type of
medication
useful
for
treating
bacterial infections.
Antibiotic resistance is a growing
problem—bacteria are evolving
ways to survive common antibiotics,
and the more we use antibiotics, the
more
bacteria
evolve
this
resistance.1
Resistant
bacterial
infections are difficult and expensive
to treat, often requiring the use of
antibiotics of last resort.1 These
antibiotics can treat otherwise
resistant bacteria, but they often
cause harmful side effects.
In February 2016, a strain of bacteria
was discovered that was resistant to
colistin, the only antibiotic which had
(until
that
discovery)
evaded
resistance.1,2 Problematically, resistant
bacteria can transfer their resistance
to non-resistant bacteria in the
environment.1 Bacteria resistant to
colistin have since been found all
over the world, including in the United
States.2
If bacteria commonly become
resistant to all known antibiotics,
humanity will face a return to the preantibiotic era.1 What was it like back
then?
• In 1930, pre-antibiotics, 22% of
deaths in the US were caused by
bacterial infection.3
• By 1952, with the help of
antibiotics, only 0.06% of US deaths
were
caused
by
bacterial
infection.3
• In 2002, that number was 0.04% —
hardly
changed
because
researchers were able to keep
pace
with
resistance
by
developing new antibiotics.3
Over the coming decades, as
antibiotic development increases in
difficulty, the public must act to slow
resistance so that researchers can
keep up.4
How to Slow Resistance Down
1. Never ask for antibiotics. Trust
your doctor to prescribe
antibiotics when appropriate.
2. Complete your course of
antibiotics as instructed. Don’t
stop early, don’t save extra
antibiotics, and never give
them to anyone else.
3. Make sure that the meat, milk,
and eggs you buy were raised
without antibiotics.
4. Inform your oral surgeon that
you’d prefer not to take
antibiotics before or after
wisdom tooth surgery unless an
infection develops.
Agriculture
Buying meat raised on antibiotics supports
the industry practice of dosing animals
with antibiotics, which promotes antibiotic
resistance in farm animals' gut bacteria.1
The same bacteria are the cause of
diseases
that
come
from
eating
contaminated meat, so these diseases
may be antibiotic-resistant by the time
they reach your plate.6
Colistin use in pigs
is
the
reason
colistin resistance,
as
referenced
earlier, now exists.7
Consumer pressure has already
caused some companies, including
McDonald’s and Subway, to promise
a transition to antibiotic-free meat.
Maintaining that pressure will ensure
that they keep their promise. You can
help
by
refusing
to
eat
at
McDonald’s until they make this
important change, and only eating
Subway’s
antibiotic-free
chicken
sandwich. Alternatively, you can
choose vegan options at both
locations.8
Since
bacteria can transfer
their
resistance throughout the environment,
it’s a good idea to buy antibiotic-free
eggs and dairy even if you’re unlikely to
directly contract a disease by consuming
these products.6
Wisdom Tooth Removal
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Citations
Liu Y-Y, Wang Y, Walsh TR, et al.
Emergence of plasmid-mediated colistin
resistance mechanism MCR-1 in animals
and human beings in China: a
microbiological and molecular biological
study. Lancet Infect Dis. 2016;16(2):161168. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(15)00424-7.
McGann P, Snesrud E, Maybank R, et al.
Escherichia coli Harboring mcr-1 and
blaCTX-M on a Novel IncF Plasmid: First
Report of mcr-1 in the United States.
Antimicrob Agents Chemother.
2016;60(7):4420-4421.
doi:10.1128/AAC.01103-16.
Gottfried J. History Repeating? Avoiding
a Return to the Pre-Antibiotic Age. DASH.
2005. doi:10.0.6612.
Spellberg B, Guidos R, Gilbert D, et al. The
epidemic of antibiotic-resistant infections:
a call to action for the medical
community from the Infectious Diseases
Society of America. Clin Infect Dis.
2008;46(2):155-164. doi:10.1086/524891.
Elies W, Huber K. Short-Course Therapy for
Acute Sinusitis. Treat Respir Med.
2004;3(5):269-277. doi:10.2165/00151829200403050-00001.
Chang Q, Wang W, Regev-Yochay G,
Lipsitch M, Hanage WP. Antibiotics in
agriculture and the risk to human health:
how worried should we be? Evol Appl.
2015;8(3):240-247. doi:10.1111/eva.12185.
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell. The antibiotic
apocalypse explained. YouTube; March
16, 2016.
Erbentraut J. The meat you eat is more
likely to be antibiotic-free this year.
Huffington Post. February 29, 2016.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/an
tibiotic-free-meat-subway-perduetyson_us_56d49d09e4b0871f60ec465c
Accessed August 30, 2016.
Lodi G, Figini L, Sardella A, Carrassi A, Del
Fabbro M, Furness S. Antibiotics to
prevent complications following tooth
extractions. In: Lodi G, ed. Cochrane
Database of Systematic Reviews.
Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd;
2012.
doi:10.1002/14651858.CD003811.pub2.
Many
oral
surgeons
prescribe
antibiotics as a preventative measure
before or after removing patients’
wisdom teeth. A review of numerous
studies determined
that 10-17
healthy people must be treated with
antibiotics to prevent one case of
infection, and that antibiotics cause
some mildly harmful side effects. As
such,
the
review’s
authors
discouraged the prescription of
preventive antibiotics for wisdom
tooth removal.9
You should communicate with your
oral surgeon in order to determine
the best course of action.
Antibiotics may still be appropriately
prescribed to people recovering from
wisdom tooth removal after they
develop an infection.