In 1945, Sir Alexander Fleming won the Nobel Prize in medicine for his discovery of Penicillin, which marked the age of antibiotics.
In 1945, Sir Alexander Fleming won the Nobel Prize in medicine for his discovery of Penicillin, which marked the age of antibiotics.
Fleming, who was born on this day, in 1881, in his speech, however, cautioned on the dangers of the overuse of antibiotics. Read his speech here.
Overuse of antibiotics results in antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in response to the use of these medicines.
This leads to higher medical costs, prolonged hospital stays, and increased mortality.
"Antibiotic resistance is rising to dangerously high levels in all parts of the world. New resistance mechanisms are emerging and spreading globally, threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases. A growing list of infections – such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, blood poisoning, gonorrhoea, and foodborne diseases – are becoming harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat as antibiotics become less effective," WHO has said in a statement regarding the dangers of overusing antibiotics.
In 2016, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on August 30 released a new set of guidelines for the treatment of three common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in response to their growing threat of antibiotic resistance.
Chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis are all caused by bacteria and are generally curable with antibiotics. However, these STDs often go undiagnosed and are becoming more difficult to treat, with some antibiotics now failing as a result of misuse and overuse. It is estimated that, each year, 131 million people are infected with chlamydia, 78 million with gonorrhoea, and 5.6 million with syphilis.
Resistance of these STIs to the effect of antibiotics has increased rapidly in recent years and has reduced treatment options. Of the 3 STDs, gonorrhoea has developed the strongest resistance to antibiotics. Strains of multidrug-resistant gonorrhoea that do not respond to any available antibiotics have already been detected. Antibiotic resistance in chlamydia and syphilis, though less common, also exists, making prevention and prompt treatment critical.
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