Chapter 10 - Human health hazards due to antimicrobial resistance spread

Abstract

Antimicrobial fend off millions of casualties every year. Unsuitable prescription and overdosing of antimicrobial have steered resistance as a global health emergency and results in 700,000 mortalities a year. The World Health Organization cogitates antimicrobial resistance as a universal threat to human health. Novel resistance mechanisms are evolving and dispersing globally, bullying our capability to treat infectious diseases. A mounting list of infections is becoming stiffer and occasionally impossible to be treated. One-fourth of infections subsequent to chemotherapy are resultant of antibiotic resistant organisms. The overall hospital mortality rate has been reported to be 7.6% in patients with a resistant isolate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Approximately 214,000 newborns pass away in a year as resultant of sepsis caused by resistant bacteria, that is, one-third of total sepsis mortality in newborns. Centers for disease control and prevention has alarmed regarding the urgent threats of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter and drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The serious threats of Vancomycin resistant Enterococci and drug resistant Salmonella serotype Typhi has been specified along with the concerns for Erythromycin resistant Group A Streptococcus and Clindamycin resistant group B Streptococcus. Drug resistant Mycoplasma genitalium and Bordetella pertussis have been on the watch list. Antimicrobial resistance tips toward lengthier hospital stays greater medical costs and augmented mortality. The threat of antimicrobial resistance is mounting at an alarming proportions especially in developing countries as a result of impropriate use of antimicrobials. In order to reduce the antimicrobial resistance and improve the patient quality of life, it is important to know the mechanism of resistance to reduce the rate of resistance and patient hospitalization. An outbreak of a multidrug-resistant infection in the hospital settings or other places shows the need and importance for better antimicrobial prescription.