Treating COVID-19 may increase antibiotic resistance
The utilization of antibiotics in people with COVID-19 may bring about increased antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This can involve bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics. The consequences could be felt among the wider population and also have toxic consequences for the environment.
This is the key takeaway of new research conducted by a team from the University of Plymouth and the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, both in britain. The findings appear in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.
COVID-19 has generated major problems for social and healthcare systems worldwide, and the spread of AMR is one possible consequence.
Although antibiotics aren't used to take care of diseases due to viruses, patients hospitalized because of the coronavirus infections may get a combination of the medications to avoid secondary bacterial infections. This might have serious effects on AMR.
“Normal with other hospitalized patients in the U.K. and other countries, the majority of our patients with COVID symptoms were recommended antibiotics because it is quite difficult to learn whether an individual presenting with symptoms of COVID comes with an overlying infection or not,” says Neil Powell, an writer of the research and consultant pharmacist at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust.
The concern about resistance has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to discourage the utilization of antibiotics for mild cases of COVID-19, though they still recommend their use for people with severe COVID-19 who've a risk of secondary bacterial infections and death.
Negative impact on the environment?
Today's research revealed that the increased utilization of antibiotics through the pandemic can also be placing an extra burden on wastewater treatment works.
The team noted that this could bring about raised levels of antibiotics within the U.K.’s rivers and coastal waters, which may in turn lead to a rise in AMR.
This would be particularly serious in acquiring waters of the works that serve large hospitals or emergency hospitals, where there are high concentrations of COVID-19 patients.
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
