Multi-resistant bacteria already cause about 700,000 deaths a year in the world and about 4,000 in Spain, deaths that could multiply tenfold in just over 20 years, among other reasons due to excessive consumption of antibiotics. In Spain, after years of reducing these drugs, their consumption has increased again since the covid pandemic, which affects bacterial resistance.
This was indicated this week by experts from the emergency infections group of the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (Semes) and the Spanish Society of Primary Care Physicians (Semergen), during the presentation of the book Microbiology for non-microbiologists. Specialists highlighted that antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial consumption rates are a real problem of increasing concern. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that antimicrobial resistance is one of the top 10 public health threats facing humanity.
In recent decades, bacterial resistance to antibiotics has emerged in the most common infections and syndromes. Emergency services are one of the care points where antibiotics are prescribed the most, so controlling this prescription to control resistance is another of the challenges of the profession.
The president of the iO Foundation, Manuel Linares, insisted that “it is essential that health professionals, especially in Emergencies and Primary Care, understand the essential microbiological concepts to make decisions when prescribing antimicrobials.”
