Sabrina Sabino: Antibiotics are not cough medicines, they do not kill viruses and you have to know that

Surely you have been or know someone who has been to an emergency room and walked out with a prescribed antibiotic without realizing it. Because it is known that the search for infectious syndromes is – and will be – increasingly frequent. The fact is that antibiotics should not be prescribed inappropriately, without a scientific basis, as in the case of viral diseases, for example.

Time and time again, worried parents take their kids to the doctor and want a magic fix for that cough that lasts weeks after a viral illness, and then abandon the appointment with a prescription antibiotic. This needs to be changed. The important thing is that we try to educate doctors and patients more and more about the danger of using unnecessary antimicrobials. Know one thing, dear reader: if you haven’t used antibiotics in recent years, you are either privileged or have good doctors.

Give thanks.

For this reason, and due to the inappropriate use of antimicrobials, World Antimicrobial Awareness Week takes place from November 18 to 24. In 2024, the theme is: “Educate. Collaborate. Do it now!

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The awareness initiative came from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organization for Animal Health, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme. The goal is for society as a whole to understand antimicrobial resistance, which is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges for global public health, with a significant impact on public health.

According to a study published in the scientific journal The Lancet, it is estimated that between now and 2050 there will be more than 39 million deaths from infections resistant to antibiotics. To be more realistic, this means one death every 3 seconds. We will surpass any other cause of death. The study also indicates that deaths caused directly by antimicrobial resistance will increase by 70% between now and 2050. In people over 70 years of age, the forecast is an increase of 146% between now and 2050.

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The above information reminds me of many stories I have experienced as an infectious disease specialist. I could tell the stories of several patients who have been through me here, but Laura* made a great impression on me. I was called to the hospital to evaluate a 17-year-old girl with a urinary tract infection caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria.

I started giving her antibiotics and immediately asked for a bed in the ICU: she was in a very serious condition. In speaking with her mother, she told me that Laura had been using several antibiotics in the 6 months prior to her hospitalization for recurrent urinary tract infections. If you evaluated it more objectively, you would not have needed such prescriptions. Laura couldn’t resist, after 48 hours I had to tell that mother that we had lost.

This story could be any of us. But how did we get here?

Due to improper, erroneous and inappropriate use of antibiotics, which causes bacteria to grow and multiply quickly and effectively. To make matters worse, the prospects for new antibiotics reaching the market are not promising. Currently, an average of 40 drugs are being developed that are not yet capable of containing the resistant bacteria described in the WHO list. In other words, we don’t have a short-term solution. Furthermore, the process of developing new drugs against bacteria is expensive and laborious and is not economically viable.

So what can we do?

“Educate. Collaborate. Do it now!” is the theme of this year’s World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week.

To be very clear and objective: antibiotics are not cough medicines. Antibiotics do not kill viruses. Antibiotics must be prescribed very responsibly.

* Fictitious name to protect the identity of the patient and family.

By Sabrina Sabino, infectious disease doctor, graduate in Medicine from PUCRS, master’s degree in Medical Sciences from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and professor of Infectious Diseases at the Regional University of Blumenau.