Have you experienced this before? After taking full dose of an antibiotic prescribed for your specific infection judiciously you still do not feel better.
Sometimes when this happens we assume that the antibiotic must be adulterated or fake. This may not be so.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health issue of concern(HIC) and has been for quite a while.
Funny how these little fellas- tiny, minute, inconspicuous microorganisms- have been able to outwit humans.
According to the WHO, antimicrobial resistance not only makes treatment of infections increasingly difficult, it is also a threat to food security and development.
Scientific studies have shown that many pathogenic microbes have developed resistance to known conventional synthetic antibiotics.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) can be likened to a war zone where the enemy’s army is able to get information of the tactics a country intends to utilize due to repeated usage of the same war strategy. These microorganisms have become so familiar with the mechanism of action of the synthetic antibiotics that they are able to develop defences against them.
The emergence of antimicrobial-resistant microbes threatens the effective prevention and treatment of diseases and is an increasingly serious threat to global public health. It is creating a serious burden on modern medical care.
AMR occurs when microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites demonstrate a change in expected response when exposed to antimicrobial medications better known as antibiotics.
According to the WHO, pathogenic bacteria are a major cause of diseases and death in developing countries such as Nigeria. Twelve priority pathogenic bacteria pose the greatest threat to human health. A few of these are: Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Escherichia coli sp., Salmonella sp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Some of the reasons for diminishing effectiveness of synthetic antibiotics especially in developing countries include the following:
Overuse of antibiotics which overtime causes the pathogenic microorganism to change its structure in order to survive attack.
Inappropriate prescription and self-medication.
Lack of availability of many new antibiotics.
How can we overcome AMR?
Combating antimicrobial resistance requires the involvement of everyone.
When you fail to complete the full course or dose of antibiotic prescribed for you, you are inadvertently contributing to the global problem of antimicrobial resistance.
Endeavour to complete your dose even if you feel you have recovered from your illness.
It is also important to stop the indiscriminate use of antibiotics.
There is increasing interest in natural products such as plant part extracts to combat AMR.
Plants have been used for centuries in various cultures of the world for the treatment of diseases and they have become of great interest in modern medicine.
Plants synthesize certain chemicals called phytochemicals which are the scientific basis for their use in the treatment of diseases in ethnomedicine.
My published research on antimicrobial activities of mango and guava entitled “Formulation of antiseptic ointments from Mangifera indica kernel, leaf and Psidium guajava leaf extracts” Tropical Journal of Natural Product Research 3(10):307–31 downloadable on ResearchGate gives a glimpse of the antimicrobial ability inherent in the fruits and plants found abundantly on the African continent.
The mango and guava based antimicrobial agents formulated in this research were found to exhibit significant antibacterial activities against some of the WHO priority pathogenic bacteria suh as gram-positive S. aureus (which causes toxic shock syndrome and boils), gram-negative E. coli (which causes bloody diarrhoea and other intestinal illnesses ) and Salmonella sp.(which causes typhoid fever).
This research is further scientific evidence that it is possible to combat antimicrobial resistance with the use of plant extracts.
Mango known as the king of fruits in some parts of Asia is a pharmacologically diverse plant. Every part of this plant has been reported to possess significant pharmacological potentials. Mango contains most of the major known phytochemicals namely alkaloids, terpenoids, saponins, tannins, flavonoids, anthraquinones and phenols.
It is hoped that funding for more researches into development of natural products to combat growing antimicrobial resistance will be pursued by both government and the pharmaceutical industry especially in developing countries like Nigeria.
