A Promise of Healthy Living

Antibiotic Resistance: An Increased Concern Worldwide

Antimicrobial resistance has received infamy as one of the most concerned issue worldwide in the healthcare set-ups. The drug resistance is occurring in every part of the world, affecting the human body to overcome infections and diseases, as well as impairing most advances in health and medicine.

Patients with antimicrobial resistant infections are hefty to cure and requires additional testing and expensive drugs for the treatment.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s “First Global Report on Antibiotic Resistance”, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC&P), the spread of “superbugs” – ineffective against more than one antibiotics and this has become serious and growing threat around the world. The common everyday treatments for intestinal and urinary tract infections, pneumonia, infections in newborn, and diseases like gonorrhea are no longer effective against most patients.

Superbugs are bacteria that are resistant against multiple antibiotics. These superbugs are becoming impossible to treat and most antibiotics have lost their ability to kill or control bacterial growth. They can even grow in a sea of antibiotics probably because their gene has evolved and developed resistance. Genetic mutations have allowed bacteria to produce certain enzymes that carry out inactivation of antibiotics. In most cases, mutation causes the elimination of target the antibiotics were supposed to attack.

Immediate solution:

World Health Organization (WHO) Global has passed its resolution and objectives that plan on reduction of Antimicrobial Resistance such as by improving hygiene, sanitation, and infection prevention. Hand hygiene is one of the most effective means of reducing the infection prevalence in the community and healthcare settings.  Successful infection control programs include: proper hand hygiene, staying home when sick, sneezing/coughing into one’s sleeve are ways to control cross contaminations and ultimately spread of infections in the community and healthcare settings. Limiting the use of antibiotics and attending the complete antibiotics course can also help lower the incidence antibiotics resistance. The proper hand hygiene in the community and healthcare settings can reduce transmission and route of microorganisms which include the resistant ones too.

Mechanism of Resistance:

Antibiotic resistance occur by four types of mechanisms:

  1. Drug inactivation or alteration: for example, enzymatic deactivation as in penicillin G is due to the manufacturing of. Protecting enzymes by the bacterial cell.
  2. Alteration of target- or binding site: Certain proteins such as paraaminobenzoic acid PABA, control the bacterial growth. Change in proteins conformational shape will inhibit protein synthesis, and this help in grow and spread of bacteria.
  3. Alteration of metabolic pathway: for example, absence of paraaminobenzoic acid (PABA) used for essential vitamin synthesis of bacteria.
  4. Pumping out of drugs: By decreasing drug permeability or actively pumping out of drugs also gives resistance to the bacteria.

To encounter the antibiotics resistance problem, the World Health Assembly proposed a global action plan that include draft that ensures the continuity of successful treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. They defined the use of medicines in a responsible way, and making it accessible to all who need them.

This control of antibiotic resistance has never been as important to the healthcare settings as it is now. This problem of resistance is not restricted to particular region or country, but has caught global attention. Protector® Antimicrobial Disposable Range can provide solution to these addressed problems. The Protector® Antimicrobial products provide maximum protection against Bacteria (including antibiotic resistant i.e. MRSA, VRE, and CRE), and other microorganisms. The microorganisms are killed upon contact with the surface of the products. The products carry out killing mechanism of these superbugs in three-step process.

  1. By rupturing the microorganism’s cell wall
  2. By denaturing enzymes and vital molecules of microorganisms
  3. By destroying the DNA to stop replication of microorganisms.

Protector® enables us to prevent microbial growth & buildup and has 99.99% effective against various microorganisms and conforms to ISO 22196, and ASTM E 2180 for its antimicrobial performance

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