According to the Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) at least 2 million people in the United States become infected with bacteria each year that are resistant to antibiotics and 23 000 die as a result of these infections. Making antibiotic resistant bacteria an urgent threat to human health. As these bacteria proliferate they cause disease that are difficult to treat. Globally the trend has been rising attracting numerous debates as scientist try to elucidate possible solution

So you may ask yourself, what is Antibiotic resistance and what is its relation to health? Today I am going to tell you what is antibiotic resistance, give some examples and talk about its relation to health without getting into too much of a technical or scientific definition I would try to make it as simple as possible so that everyone can understand.

What is Antibiotic Resistance?

When you get an infection that is bacterial of origin, a doctor usually prescribe a medication(s)/drug (antibiotics) to fight or kill that bacteria. In some cases, some of these bacteria learn or develop ways to evade the drug (antibiotic) and make themselves less vulnerable to the deadly effect of the drug. Subsequent infection with the given bacteria makes the given drug treatment ineffective. Depending on the severity of the infection it could result in serious illness or possible death leaving doctors and healthcare workers struggling to find effective treatment option. Here is an excellent CDC outlay

Why is this a public health concern?

Antibiotic Resistance is a public health problem because of the morbidity, mortality and cost associated directly or indirectly with it. Finding an effective drug treatment for 1 strain of bacteria could sometimes skyrocket into the millions with strains evolving drug treatment ever so often. Several possible causes have been put forward including doctor over prescribing antibiotics, patients failing to follow prescription guidelines and over quality of drugs being prescribed have come under scrutiny. While these possible causes are being heatedly debated, here is one way you can help fight antibiotic resistance.

Carefully follow prescription guidelines. A lot of people usually stop taking medication whenever they experience relief or improvement from illness/ infection. While this practice may be brush aside as “no big deal” it is this relief period that the bacteria uses to modify its mechanism and evolve, making it more resilient to future drug toxicity. Thereby allowing resistance to happen. If we should get technical or scientific, it is during these period that certain bacterial genes are turn off or on passing on protection/ insurance for subsequent strains.

As mention above morbidity and cost can have disastrous implication on the general population and by extension an economy. Patients experience increase length of stay at the hospital or home thus affecting the ability of that individual to work carrying a financial burden to the hospital or individual.

Lets talk about two known examples

I. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the name explains the antibiotic that this strain of bacteria is resistant to. Here are few worthy points to note

• Two main types, namely Hospital MRSA and the Community Acquired MRSA
• The Community Acquired (CA) MRSA is usually susceptible to clindamycin and carries the PVL toxin unlike the Hospital MRSA
• Usual outpatient antibiotics do not work for CA-MRSA
• Serious infections or more resistant strains need IM or IV antibiotics such as vancomycin just as the hospital MRSA
  (No need to worry about the details given, leave that up to the physician to figure out but I wanted to add it for completeness sake)
  II. Vancomycin Resistant S. aureus (VRSA), like the example above, the name explains the antibiotic that this strain of bacteria is resistant to. Here are a few worthy points to note
• Overdose of vancomycin has helped the emergence of vancomycin resistance
• When a VRSA is found in a hospital, the patient is placed in the strictest of isolation
• Dedicated personnel may care for the patient so that chance of transmission is minimized
• Government agencies get involved.

These are just two examples, there are many more examples and growing list bacterial strains are being added every day.

From the early days of Alexander Fleming discovering penicillin, to its eventual widespread use of antibiotics against various bacterial infection, bacteria has been evolving. One can also argue that the potential abuse of antibiotic to treat every and anything led the gradual decline of antibiotics as bacteria were being drill to defend themselves. This point has been the focus of many debate by microbiologist and other healthcare professional who either go for or against. What has become clear, traditional antibiotics are no longer effective and more research needs to be done to find possible solution.

One of the surprising solution

Your “poop”, your “poop” has turn up as one the possible and most effective solution to some of the post antibiotic resistance world. In other words, your “feces”, “mess”, “effluents” depending on where you are coming from is the silver bullet to the war against some antibiotic resistance. I could probably imagine the alarm bells going off in your head “poop”, what about all these dangerous bacteria that poop contains and the disastrous effects it can have on the body. One of the most important element to understand about your poop, some of the bacteria that it contains are actually very good for our health. The principle behind the fecal transplant is by putting healthy stool into an unhealthy gut in the case of Clostridium difficile resistance you are reintroducing all the healthy bacteria and that helps restore the gut and contained the unhealthy bacteria. You can think about it as your probiotic and the effective has been over 90% for patients suffering from Clostridium difficile according to doctors from the Mayo Clinic. This is actually remarkable results because treatment achieving over 90% success rate is very rare. Scientist are now trying to better understand these stool bacteria and how they can help fight the war against antibiotic drug resistance. Depending on the State you live in the United States, if pass the necessary health checks, you are paid 40USD for your daily stool/ poop, that is place in a poop bank.

To summarize, antibiotic resistance remain a serious issue and a solution is coming from the most unlikely sources, your "poop".

I hope you learn about antibiotic resistance and I welcome all your upvotes, feel free to ask any question by commenting below

Sources

https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/index.html
Atlas of Infection Disease, Editor: Gerald L. Mandell
Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA)
https://resistancemap.cddep.org/AntibioticResistance.php
https://invisiverse.wonderhowto.com/news/fecal-transplants-cure-infections-modern-take-1-700-year-old-idea-0175585/