Severe Abuse of Antibiotics in China Experts: May Lead to Infinite Problems

There are problems with the use of antibiotics in China that are “did not use, only expensive, need to be used, use when not needed, overtime or overuse”, director of the Institute of Infectious Diseases Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Microbiology Xu Jianguo, vice chairman of the Institute, recently bluntly stated that China's abuse of antibiotics has reached a point where it can no longer be ignored.

Headaches, colds or diarrhea, many people are often accustomed to go to pharmacies to buy cephalosporins anti-inflammatory sterilization ... As everyone knows, these seemingly common habits, but with the recent epidemic of EHEC in Germany and last year caused There is a great correlation between the panicking "super bacteria" and behind it, the abuse of antibiotics is reflected.

The theme of the China Association for Science and Technology, which was held recently on the topic “Cognition of Superbugs from German Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli to Drug Resistant Superbugs” face-to-face with scientists, the director of the Institute of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Chinese Society for Microbiology Xu Jianguo, deputy director of the researcher said: The bacteria resistance problem is unprecedentedly severe, and it is necessary to attach great importance to the problem of antibiotic abuse.

"Most bacteria are actually good bacteria"

Bacteria are single-celled organisms that are very small and must be visible with a microscope. But we now say bacteria are all pathogenic, and in fact most bacteria are good bacteria. Xu Jianguo first "corrected" people's misunderstandings. He said: "In fact, we couldn't live without bacteria. If we kill all bacteria and give him good nutrition in a sterile environment, he will not live for a long time."

"For example, E. coli, 99.99% of the bacteria are good bacteria, not pathogenic." Yang Ruiji, a researcher at the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and the chief scientist of the National 973 Project, said that E. coli can be divided into more than 100 types, of which Only 16 are pathogenic to humans. Under normal circumstances, the vast majority of E. coli are very well-behaved. They will not only bring no harm to our physical health, but will also be able to compete against the attack of pathogenic bacteria and be mutually beneficial to the human body. E. coli is present in every mammalian body and is a normal part of the human intestinal flora.

Although the vast majority of E. coli live in peace with us, there are still some special E. coli pathogens that can be life threatening when severe. Enterohemorrhagic E.coli is a fairly "aggressive" category in E. coli.

Serious abuse of antibiotics in our country

Antibiotics, formerly known as antibiotics, not only kill bacteria, but also have good inhibition and killing effects on mold, mycoplasma, chlamydia, and other pathogenic microorganisms. Antibiotics can be a substance produced during the growth and reproduction of certain microorganisms. In addition to the direct extraction of antibiotics used to treat diseases, they are completely artificially or partially artificially synthesized. That is, antibiotics are drugs used to treat various bacterial infections or to inhibit the infection of pathogenic microorganisms, but they have no therapeutic effect on virus-induced diseases.

The commonly used antibiotics in our medicine include oxacillins, mycins, cephalosporins, and sulfonamides. Such as streptomycin, chloramphenicol, thiamphenicol, cefazolin, cephradine, cefoperazone, amoxicillin, metronidazole, sulfamethazine, sulfamethoxazole and so on.

China is one of the countries where the abuse of antibiotics is the most serious. The use of antibiotics has problems such as "do not use right, only use expensive, need when needed, use when not needed, overtime or overuse" and other issues. Humans use antibiotics in the treatment of diseases, but also exercise the ability of bacteria to resist. When these bacteria are re-infected, they have developed resistance to the antibiotics they were originally applied to, and as a result, the drug is no longer sensitive to the drug.

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) data, the use of antibiotics in hospitalized patients in China is as high as 80%. Among them, 58% use broad-spectrum antibiotics and combined use, far higher than the international level of 30%. What is more alarming is that 80,000 people in China die directly or indirectly from the abuse of antibiotics each year. As a result, the resulting body damage and drug resistance are even more incalculable.

The abuse of antibiotics when the body does not need antibiotics can lead to dysbacteriosis. The most direct result is that the human immune system is weakened and the germs have developed drug resistance. Such a vicious cycle will eventually lead to the emergence of super-resistant bacteria.

In addition, the antibiotic contamination caused by the abuse of antibiotics in the livestock breeding process is also very serious. Professor Yu Jun, deputy director of the Beijing Institute of Genomics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that because the price of antibiotics used in livestock is lower than that used in humans, the abuse of antibiotics in livestock farming should be more serious. Studies have shown that the amount of residual antibiotics in animal products is generally very low, and the direct toxicity to the organism is also very small, but after long-term consumption, it can accumulate in the body, causing harm to human health.

The drug resistance problem is unprecedentedly severe

"The genomic analysis revealed that Shiga toxin-producing E.coli, which caused the epidemic in Germany, carries a large number of resistance genes, that is, various antibiotic genes." Yang said that the bacteria are super-resistant bacteria, and its fear is that antibiotics The drug does not work for it, and when it is serious, people have almost no medicine to use.

"The emergence, spread, and proliferation of super-resistant bacteria are certainly related to the abuse of antibiotics. This matter cannot be ignored." Xu Jianguo said that due to the use of antibiotics, bacterial resistance has emerged. The use of antibiotics kills drug-resistant bacteria. This problem cannot be ignored. This is a social problem.

The emergence of super bacteria gave us a wake-up call. The problem of bacterial drug resistance is unprecedentedly severe. We must pay great attention to the issue of antibiotic abuse. The use of antibiotics by the people must be prescriptive, and they must not be self-asserted and take a look at the instructions; the government must also scientifically use antibiotics and strengthen supervision. The use of antibiotics in animals should also be given sufficient attention.

Getting rid of antibiotic abuse requires technological breakthrough

"How to determine which kind of antibiotic is the patient's bacterial infection?" Yu Jun said that, technically, if a DNA sequence can be detected at the molecular level, a sequence of bacteria can theoretically be detected. The doctor takes a sample from the patient's respiratory tract and directly measures the sequence to determine what kind of bacteria it is. However, the current level of technology is still unable to detect bacteria quickly and determine which antibiotic to use. Using traditional methods of bacterial culture to detect bacteria, at least two or three days, it is unrealistic for doctors and other experimental results to give medicines to patients, and patients certainly cannot accept it. This is an important cause of antibiotic abuse. the reason.

In the opinion of experts, if there is a breakthrough in the detection of drug resistance, or after the doctor prescribes medicine, it only takes one or two small, or even shorter, periods to know which antibiotics can be used, which will solve many problems. problem. "At present, China's scientific development has not yet reached the ideal state that doctors can get experimental data in a very short period of time," Xu Jianguo said.

In the past, we always wanted to produce an antibiotic and kill all the bacteria. If we can understand the DNA of each bacteria, the strategy will change. According to Yu Jun, scientists are studying the method of DNA sequencing to determine the composition of all the genetic code of bacteria, and then to trace the source and find a cure for related diseases. In the future, DNA sequencing may be used to find the unique "dead hole" of a certain type of bacteria, design special antibiotics, and kill the bacteria in a targeted manner. This is an important strategy for antibiotic research in the future.

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Nine Mistakes in the Use of Antibiotics

1. Due to the lack of understanding of antibiotic-related knowledge, many consumers are more or less caught in some misconceptions about the use of antibiotics, which is where many antibiotics are abused.

2. Antibiotics = anti-inflammatory drugs. Antibiotics are only suitable for inflammation caused by bacteria but not for inflammation caused by viruses.

3. Antibiotics can prevent infection. Antibiotics do not have the effect of preventing infection. On the contrary, long-term use of antibiotics can cause bacterial resistance.

4. Broad spectrum antibiotics are better than narrow spectrum antibiotics. The principle of the use of antibiotics is to be able to use a narrow-spectrum, broad-spectrum, low-grade, high-grade, low-grade, and no-use two. Mild or moderate infections do not generally use antibiotics in combination.

5. New antibiotics are better than old ones, and expensive antibiotics are better than cheap ones. In fact, each antibiotic has its own characteristics, and its advantages and disadvantages are different. Generally due to illness, because of people's choice, adhere to individualized administration.

6. The more types of antibiotics used, the more effective the control of infection. In general, the combined use of antibiotics is not recommended. In order to avoid the emergence of drug resistance and toxic side effects, the problem that can be solved with an antibiotic should never be used in two ways.

7. Use antibiotics for colds. Antibiotics are only useful for bacterial influenza, and viral influenza does not require the use of antibiotics.

8. Use antibiotics for fever. Antibiotics are only suitable for inflammation caused by bacteria and some other microorganisms. It is harmful for antiviral treatment such as flu virus, measles, mumps, cold, and flu.

9. Frequently change antibiotics. Frequent replacement of medicines can cause confusion and harm to the body. Moreover, frequent drug changes can easily make bacteria resistant to multiple drugs.

Stop as soon as it is effective. If we stop the drug with a little effect, we will not only cure the disease, but even if the condition has improved, it may rebound because of residual bacteria.