Survey results

If you haven't completed the survey yet please do not read this section because answers are given (survey can be found here).

The results from each question are presented below. The survey was done by people aged 18 and over with different backgrounds and education. The majority of them have not studied a science related course. Results are shown after around 50 adults aged 16+ gave their answers for the survey.

The correct answer is bacteria. This graph shows that less than half of the people questioned knew the correct answer. People seem unaware what the difference between viruses and bacteria are. A lot of them (36.4%) chose the safe answer with both options (viruses and bacteria).

Again, the majority of the people asked didn't know that a cold and sore throat is caused by a virus, so antibiotics would be useless. Only 38.6% had the correct response, which was no. It was a great response for the correct answer (70.5%): to prevent antibiotics resistance. Although some people are still unaware why they should avoid taking them.
Penicillin is mainly used for chest infections and urinary tract infections. Each person had to pick two answers and only 13.6% chose them both correctly. Worrying also that 20% said that Penicillin is used to treat sore throats. This shows how little people know about antibiotics. Only one question when almost everyone (90.9%) answered correctly that bacteria no longer responds to the treatment, but even if people know what it means do they know how serious the consequences this can have? According to my results no. 65.9% share my opinion in this question which is yes. However this is what they think, there's no wrong or right answer. Maybe some people don't think it would be a risk for humans, or perhaps some people just don't have enough information about antibiotics resistance.


  Q7. Do you know any types of antibiotics. If yes can you give an example. 

Many people left the blank space for this question. Although through the examples given I have; 5 people giving Amoxicillin, 1 Erythromycin, 1 Trimethoprim and 9 Penicillin (however Penicillin was mentioned in another question in the survey). What's worrying is that some people answered aspirin, paracetamol, ibuprofen. These are painkillers not antibiotics.
Over 60% gave the answer over a year ago and not sure/never had one. This shows that antibiotics are not prescribed too often by doctors and only when necessary.

68.2% knew they have to finish the whole course of prescribed antibiotics. But rest of them would lead to bacterial resistance by not taking the antibiotics in the correct way.

Yes I think people don't know a lot about how antibiotics work and what they do. Many don't know the threat of the antibiotic resistance and inappropriate usage. If people become more aware and take the problem seriously we could slow down the process of resistance.

Antibiotics survey

Click Here to open the survey and check how much you know about antibiotics.

Image reference: http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMy1jZmE1NjQ1N2NiZmZjNTBl

Will antibiotics resistance impact human survival?

We already know that mutations and bacterial resistance is spreading worldwide and it will continue doing so. However, if we are smart and we know how to use antibiotics we can slow down this process, but how serious is the problem now?

Let's take a look at Staphylococcus aureus (Image 1) - bacteria that causes most skin infections in humans (S.aureus infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -MRSA). Many strains of S.aureus are already resistant to all antibiotics except vancomycin. S.aureus is a major cause of hospital-acquired infections and is only one step away to be an unstoppable killer. Due to spreading of the bacterial resistance, the death rates for some diseases such as tuberculosis started to rise again(1).

It is estimated that about 19,000 people die every year from MRSA in the United states of America. Not all S.aureus infections are deadly, most MRSA deaths occur in a hospital in people with a weak immune system; not strong enough to fight infection. In 2002 first-cases of vancomycin resistant MRSA were reported. Vancomycin is the last resort treatment for the infection and in these cases when MRSA is already resistant it won't work(2).

There's more bacteria that are resistant to various numbers of antibiotics this was just one example. Antibiotic resistance is a major public health problem nowadays. Public health agencies produce posters about good hygiene practices to prevent spreading the resistant bacteria from one person to another. Scientist have to develop new treatments and therapies because in the future a simple bacterial infection can be deadly for anyone(2).










References:
(1)http://www.chiro.org/LINKS/FULL/Challenge_of_Antibiotic_Resistance.shtml (18/4/14)
(2)http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/antibiotic-resistance-mutation-rates-and-mrsa-28360 (18/4/14)
Image: http://labs.mcdb.lsa.umich.edu/labs/boles/research.php (18/4/14)

6 groups of antibiotics

Nowadays, we have hundreds of different types of antibiotics. They are produced by different companies so have various brand names. Basically antibiotics are grouped together by how they work. Each type of antibiotics only works against certain bacteria. Amongst all the types of antibiotics most of them we can classify into 6 groups(1).

• Penicillins, widely used to treat infections such as: skin infections, chest infections and urinary tract infections. 
• Cephalosporins can be used to treat serious infections such as septicaemia and meningitis ( you can read more about these infections in references 1).
• Aminoglycosides (injection or eye drops), only used for very serious infections such as meningitis due to severe side effects (hearing loss, kidney damage)
• Tetracyclines commonly used to treat acne and rosacea (causes flushing of the skin and spots)
• Macrolides, lung and chest infections treatment, used for people with Penicillin allergy or resistance
• Fluoroquinolones, newest, broad spectrum antibiotics- can be used to treat various infections.

As many other medicines antibiotics can cause side effects. The most common side effects are: being/feeling sick, bloating and indigestion, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, loss of appetite. These occur in around 1 in 10 people(2).

Some antibiotics can cause an allergic reaction, especially penicillin and cephalosporins. These include: itching, coughing, sneezing, wheezing, tightness of throat. This will happen to around 1 in 15 people and can be treated with antihistamines (allergy tablets). In very rare cases antibiotics can cause anaphylaxis which is a severe and life-threating allergy reaction and needs fast medical reaction(2).




References:
(1)http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Antibiotics-penicillins/Pages/Introduction.aspx (6/4/14)
(2)http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Antibiotics-penicillins/Pages/Side-effects.aspx (9/4/14)

Antibiotic resistance: When and why we should avoid taking

The antibiotics are life saving medicines but increasing antibiotic resistance is a huge problem. Antibiotics resistance means that the antibiotics is no longer effective, the bacteria became resistant to an antibiotic and won't be killed/stopped by an antibiotic treatment.

The antibiotic resistance is driven by overuse or inappropriate prescribing. To slow down the process of resistance we should take antibiotics only when it's absolutely necessary and in a right way so the antibiotics will remain effective in the future(1). We cannot stop the process completely but at least we can slow it down and get some time for new antibiotics to be developed(2).

Antibiotic resistance is a major problem and awareness of this problem in our society is one of the keys to slowing it down. On the 18th of November every year the European Antibiotics Awareness Day is held (EAAD). Fewer new antibiotics are developed each year which is difficult when the resistance is increasing rapidly, so when you're in a situation when you have to use antibiotics, use them in an appropriate way exactly as prescribed(1): 

• complete the whole course as prescribed by your doctor 
• do not skip any doses (if you did take it asap and continue your course as before, do not overdose don't take double doses if you missed one before- it might increase the side effects)
• take antibiotics at regular intervals 
• do not save any antibiotics for later 

The picture below clearly explains how the antibiotics resistance spreads and simply using the antibiotics will create a resistance(3). 

References:
(1)http://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/ARC/pages/AboutARC.aspx
(2)http://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/ARC/pages/Whatareantibiotics.aspx
(3)http://www.cdc.gov/media/dpk/2013/dpk-untreatable.html

When should we take antibiotics?

Antibiotics should not be used to treat any flu, colds, most coughs and sore throats, simply because they are all viral infections. These will get better on their own sometimes in a few days and sometimes a little bit longer. If you can remember from the previous post antibiotics are useless against viral infections so even if you'd take them they wouldn't help. Also Viral infections are more common than Bacterial, which means it's more likely that when we ill we suffer from viral infection and we don't need to be treated with antibiotic(1).

Here are some examples of common infections caused by viruses and bacteria.
Viruses: cold, runny nose, cough, sore throat, ear infections, vomiting, diarrhoea.
Bacteria: urine/kidney infection, persisting cough (cough in people with chest problems), high fever, skin infections, meningitis(2)


Bacteria are relatively complex, single celled organisms, they can reproduce on their own and can survive extremities (extreme hot and cold). Most bacteria are harmless and useful (food digestion, fighting cancer cells) and only about 1% of them will make you ill. On the other hand viruses are tiny,  they need a host to survive and can only reproduce by attaching themselves to the cells (our cells in the body).  They reprogram the cells to make new viruses or simply kill them. It's viruses than turn the normal cells into cancer cells. Most of the viruses will cause a disease and hit the specific target in your body(3).

Antibiotics should be taken only when prescribed by a doctor (your GP) and never taken from anybody else e.g unused antibiotics of one of your family member. It is essential to finish all the course of the prescribed antibiotic even if you feel better before that point. If you stop taking your antibiotics too early the bacteria can become resistant to that antibiotic(4).

References:
(1)http://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/ARC/pages/Whatareantibiotics.aspx
(2)http://www.hse.ie/eng/health/hl/hcaiamr/antibiotics/anti/

(3)http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/bacterial-and-viral-infections
(4)http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Antibiotics-penicillins/Pages/Introduction.aspx
Image: http://www.hse.ie/images_upload/portal/eng/services/healthpromotion/AntibioticAwareness/nopoint.jpg

How do antibiotics treat infections?

The first antibiotic was discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming. It was Penicillin and this discovery was made by an accident in the laboratory in Fleming's petri dishes. It was found that Penicillin could kill different kinds of bacteria and since then we have developed a various number of antibiotics(1).

Antibiotics only work against bacterial infections. They can't kill viruses. Antibiotics can be used to treat mild conditions like acne and also the ones that could possibly kill you such as lung infections (pneumonia). They are medications that treat infections but in some cases they also can prevent them(2).

Antibiotics kill or stop the growth of bacteria. Different antibiotics will work in different ways and some might be more effective than the other. There are two main ways to classify bacteria, they can be gram positive (thin, easy permeable, one layered cell walls) or gram negative (thicker, less permeable, two layer cell wall). Antibiotics has to be able to penetrate one or both types of bacteria(1).

 There's a few way that antibiotics can work: 

•  interfere with the bacteria ability to repair their damaged DNA 
• unable bacteria to grow new cells
•  weakening bacteria's cell wall until it's bust (bacteria's being killed)

The picture below represents the types of bacteria. (pink-gram negative, blue-gram positive)(3).

References:
(1)http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/medication/question88.htm
(2)http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Antibiotics-penicillins/Pages/Introduction.aspx
(3)http://medicinexplained.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/gram-staining-procedure-mechanism.html