‘Super gonorrhoea’ clinical sign of dreaded antimicrobial resistance
There have been reports of a spike in gonorrhoea infections that are resistant to traditional medical treatment regimes. The World Health Organization (WHO) had last year reported about a multi-drug-resistant gonorrhoea strain on the rise in Africa and the western Pacific with most infections in 15-49 age sets.
Scary as it seems, this is but the tip of the iceberg; the base is much broader and could cost humanity if nothing is done urgently. But what we should fear most are the emerging superbugs at the root of this problem.
This taken into consideration, the super gonorrhoea, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) and many more that will come to the fore are but clinical signs of a bigger disease—antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Although a big problem, AMR is, unfortunately, not taken seriously by the public, probably because it lacks a face. But it is terrible. It is what is causing long stays in hospitals, forcing doctors to use highly costly and toxic alternatives for infections initially treated effectively with affordable and safer drugs.
AMR is threatening human nutrition by an increase in resistant livestock diseases. So huge are its losses that the global community has listed it in the top 10 health priorities.
The AMR ogre has grown in stature and can easily devour millions of human and livestock lives that over the years had found a haven in antibiotics, whose discovery was a great milestone in human and animal health.
In his inaugural speech after winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1945 for the discovery of the first antibiotic, Penicillin, Sir Alexander Fleming warned that, inasmuch as the war had been won against stubborn bacterial infections, humanity should not rest easy.
He said the bacteria would fight back, and viscously so, after retreating and mutating and subsequently present yet another problem—AMR, as we know it today.
Score ‘own goals’
Sir Alexander painstakingly prophesied that, in subsequent battles against antimicrobials, human beings would score ‘own goals’ in the misuse of discovered antimicrobials.
Through underdosing, we have given soft punches where we ought to have delivered a killer blow. This has given microbes ample time to mutate and become resistant to our erstwhile magic bullet, antibiotics. In AMR, Sir Alexander’s prophesy has come to pass.
In a report entitled “Drug-resistant infections: A threat to our economic future”, it is estimated that AMR sending 700,000 people to the grave annually. And if nothing is done, the death toll could shoot to 10 million by 2050, further causing a 3.8 per cent reduction in annual gross domestic product (GDP).And once again, as with climate change, the most affected will be the world’s poorest countries.
Takes time and money
Now this is the sad reality: It takes a lot of time and money to develop a single drug. With resistance quickly developing, it may not make economic sense to drug manufacturers and this already paints a hellish hue of the future if we do not stop our sins of commission and omission as we use these antimicrobials in human and animal health.
As I write this, the WHO has already registered significant levels of resistance in common bacteria that infect humans—such as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The same is happening with other disease-causing micro-organisms. The trend is worrying.
But all is not lost: We can still reclaim our victory against these superbugs through prudent use of antibiotics in human health and livestock production. We must stop sharing medicines. We must shun self-treatment. We must finish our doses. We must cease misuse of medications in our animals. BY DAILY NATION
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