By: Floro Mercene
Like all living things, bacteria constantly evolve to survive. Encountering a new antibiotic, they quickly find ways to evade it. Some have developed cell walls that keep antibiotics out. Others pump antibiotics out when they get in.
Bacteria have even devised ways to deactivate antibiotics.
Peter Jaret, a health writer in California writes about the urgent need of researching and developing new antibiotics. Penicillin, the first “wonder drug,” went into widespread use in the 1940s, but within a decade, penicillin –resistant organisms began to spread. To treat them, a new antibiotic was developed. Within a few years, bacteria become resistant to it. One of the most powerful antibiotics, used sparingly as a last resort, is colistin.
In November 2015, experts isolated bacteria that carried a single gene that made them resistant to colistin. The bacteria were found in pigs – and also in a few humans. “There are reports of bacteria that are resistant to
virtually every antibiotics we have,” says Jean Patel at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in USA. In the face of growing alarm, new efforts are underway to jump-start antibiotics research and development (R&D) and protect the antibiotics we now have. Recently a $350 million joint U.S.-U.K. effort was announced to fund the kinds of basic research that major pharmaceutical companies have largely abandoned. The National Institute of Health announced $20 million in awards for researchers who develop tests to quickly identify which infections will respond to antibiotics.
Protecting the antibiotics we already have is also crucial. There is growing pressure to limit or even ban the use of antibiotics in agriculture. McDonald’s recently announced that it has stopped using chicken raised with antibiotics, following the lead of several other fast-food giants.
(To be continued)
