This is due to antimicrobial resistance or AMR?
AMR happens when microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites) change and are still able to grow, even when they are exposed to antimicrobial medicines that are meant to kill or limit their growth (such as antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antimalarials, and anthelmintics).
As a result, the medicines become ineffective and infections persist in the body, increasing the risk of spread to others. While antimicrobial resistance refers to all microbes that resist treatments designed to destroy them, antibiotic resistance specifically deals with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.
Usually, the more often antibiotics are used, the more bacteria adapt and find new ways to survive, which means they become resistant to antibiotics. Instead of being killed by the antibiotics, some bacteria survive and continue to multiply, causing more harm. Therefore, patients with infections caused by these drug-resistant bacteria are at an increased risk of poorer clinical outcomes, including death.
Maintaining a balanced microbiota during antibiotic use may certainly provide opportunities for reducing the spread of resistances.
- Probiotics may reduce the risk for certain infectious diseases and thereby reduce the need for antibiotics.
- Probiotics may reduce the risk for antibiotic-associated diarrhea.
- Probiotics do not contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance and may even reduce it.
Source: reactgroup.org
