Public Health Model for Mitigation of Antimicrobial Resistance

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance complicates medical treatment and frequently results in longer and more serious illness, and even death in some instances. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 99,000 people die each year in the U.S. of hospital‐acquired infectious diseases. Medical practice involving Poly pharmacy, Hospice care, nosocomial infections, health care facilities housing chronically ill patients and use of disproportionate quantities of antibiotics on cattle to boost revenue from the Agro Industry have been shown as sources of antimicrobial resistance. Primary care physicians in private practice, health care facilities, long term critical care, and geriatric care facilities, the agriculture and livestock industries, are of potential risk factors. Also, farming communities with low literacy or illiterate migrant workers, oil rig workers, health care workers, and workers who are in constant contact with the general public (especially those in the retail industry), and transportation workers are potential targets groups and considered as “AT RISK” group. Public awareness campaigns, which attempt to educate the general public, can provide strict guidelines to eliminate antibiotic recycling and antimicrobial optimization. These are potential avenues in preventing the evolution of Antimicrobial Resistance.