Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria In Hospital Case Study

The Problem of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria in Hospitals.
Introduction
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are bacteria who can survive after exposure to one or more antibiotics. Some bacteria present today can even be resistant to multiple antibiotics and these are sometimes referred to by the name Multidrug resistant (MDR). Today many clinically important bacteria are MDR’s and this is a direct result of past decades of antimicrobial use and misuse. If an infection results from this sort of resistant bacteria a stronger antibiotic must be used to treat it. (pdf).Diseases that were once believed to be fully under the control of antibiotics are now returning resistant to these older therapies. Standard treatments have appeared to become ineffective
Certain human actions accelerate the spread and emergence of these strains. According to reports from the Journal of the American Medical Association, half of patients in hospitals receive at least one antibiotic each day, used to treat a variety of different infections. More worrying still, half of those mentioned patients receive more than one antibiotic. The drugs are most commonly used in patients with hospital acquired infections and in ICU units but also to treat patients with less serious infections. Approximately 23% of the antibiotics given to patients had no really documented purpose of administration. These are very worrying facts. This overuse of antibiotics is accelerating the problem of antibiotic resistance and there is a growing culture of doctors prescribing antibiotics even when there is no really genuine need. Inappropriate use of antibiotics is very prevalent in our hospitals. It is estimated that millions of kilograms of antimicrobials are used each year to treat compromised individuals. This then amplifies the resistance problem across the global
There has been an undoubtedly worrying increase in this problem over the past few years and this can be then correlated with prolonged hospitalisation and convalescence for fragile patients associated with antibiotic treatment failures. This most certainly calls for the implementation of a broader range in control of infection in this country and increased public health interventions aimed at curtailing the spread of anti-biotic resistant pathogens. It must be stated that intensive care units in hospitals are of course an exceptional circumstance as there is common widespread use of antibiotics in small confined environments. These places have been common points of first emergence and spread of anti-biotic