ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE STRATEGIES FOR CONTAINMENT: MECHANISMS, DRIVERS AND ITS GLOBAL IMPACT

Abstract

The problem of antibiotic resistance is an acute challenge of modern medicine and population health. As a result, microorganisms are getting a mechanism that makes them able to overcome the effect of antibiotics thus compromising effective therapy, raise morbidity and mortality and also raise healthcare costs. The needless and inappropriate use and abuse of antibiotics in both human medicine and animal farming, as well as in aquaculture, has accelerated the outbreak and spread of resistant pathogens. All these include enzymatic inactivation, changes of the target-site, efflux pump function, and low membrane permeability, which contribute to the survival of bacteria in the antibiotic pressure. These determinants of resistance are often horizontally devolved, and this makes multidrug resistance a global issue. In addition, poor infection control measures in the healthcare facilities, as well as the pollution of the environment, contribute to the existence and the dissemination of resistant bacteria. The financial consequences of antibiotics resistance are also very drastic especially in the low- and income based economies where access to regulated healthcare services and diagnostic centers increase the load. Therefore, to overcome ABR, a complex multidimensional approach should be introduced, encompassing rigorous antibiotics management procedures, fast advancement of diagnostic tools, innovation of novel antimicrobial agents, pursuit of alternative therapeutic modalities (e.g., phage and peptide-based therapy), and tightening of One Health paradigm. Long-term public education, legislative changes, and cooperation at the global level are the only things without which the current trend will not be reversed, or the existing antibiotics will remain usable.