The pandemic has created many challenges for the medical field including contributing to global antimicrobial resistance. A viral infection can be followed by secondary bacterial infections due to ongoing inflammatory responses in the host. Prescribing antibiotics during or after a viral infection has no effect on fighting the ensuing virus but may be used as a precautionary measure for higher risk patients. Some individuals are even taking their health into their own hands with self-medication on antibiotics. These two factors contribute to the greater issue of antimicrobial drug resistance.
Simply explained, antimicrobial resistant bacteria are germs that can’t be easily killed using antibiotics. They are created when a prescription isn’t followed correctly, a dose is taken at a wrong amount or over a wrong duration of time, or simply when most of the bacteria is killed while only the strongest bacteria survives. These surviving bacteria multiply and spread, creating infections even harder to treat with normal antibiotics. Stronger antibiotics can be used to treat these resistant infections although the strength of these medications will also eventually also lose their effectiveness. This contributes to global antimicrobial resistance, an ongoing issue and one of the toughest the medical field must face in the coming decades. Self-medicating with antibiotics or over-prescribing to patients who don’t need them contributes greatly to this global issue.
During the COVID19 pandemic healthcare workers have seen an increase in multidrug resistant and extensively drug resistant patients due to a marked drop in antibiotic stewardship. According to the WHO high-priority strains including Enterococcus faecium and Staphylococcus aureus – golden staph. The shortage of PPE has also been suggested to contribute to this increase in resistant strains.
“A recent review highlights that during the COVID-19 pandemic, 75% of adults with comorbidities received an antimicrobial prescription even without pathogen isolation and that the antibiotic was inappropriate in more than one-third of the COVID-19 cases” – Luis Esaú López-Jácome, et al.
Limited treatment options and secondary bacterial and fungal infections in higher risk patients has caused a drop-in antibiotics stewardship. One study urges that the time for strengthening antibiotic stewardship is now before an imminent third wave of the virus, also suggesting that ongoing infection control efforts are vital in both fighting the pandemic and decreasing global antimicrobial resistance.
Sidra Ghazali Rizvi, Shaikh Ziauddin Ahammad. (2022). COVID-19 and antimicrobial resistance: A cross-study. Science of The Total Environment. Volume 807, Part 2. 150873. ISSN 0048-9697. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150873. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969721059519
Luis Esaú López-Jácome, et al. (2022). Increment Antimicrobial Resistance During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results from the Invifar Network. Mary Ann Liebert Inc Publishers. Microbial Drug Resistance Volume: 28 Issue 3: March 4, 2022. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/mdr.2021.0231
Sushma Yadav Boorgula , Sadhana Yelamanchili , Pragathi Kottapalli , Mohini D. Naga. (2022). An Update on Secondary Bacterial and Fungal Infections and Their Antimicrobial Resistance Pattern (AMR) in COVID-19 Confirmed Patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital. J Lab Physicians. Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Pvt. Ltd. DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1741438. https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/html/10.1055/s-0041-1741438
