World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW)

What is ‘antimicrobial resistance’?

Antimicrobials – including antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals and antiparasitics – are medicines used to treat infections in humans, animals and plants. 

All around the world bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites are changing and starting not to respond to the medicines used to treat the infections they cause. This antimicrobial resistance (AMR) emerges naturally, usually through genetic changes. However, the overuse and misuse of antimicrobials have accelerated the development of antimicrobial resistance, as has a lack of clean water and sanitation and inadequate infection prevention and control. This makes infections harder to treat which increases the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

The rise of drug-resistant pathogens threatens to undo more than a century’s work of health progress and undermine the very foundations of modern medicine. For example, bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics could make vital medical procedures like organ transplants, joint replacements, cancer care and care of preterm infants too dangerous to perform. AMR can affect anyone, of any age, in any country.

AMR also affects and is affected by animals and the environment. The use of antimicrobials in animal health is driven by the large and growing burden of animal diseases, the increasing scale of animal production and under-investment in veterinary services and animal health. Reducing the inappropriate use of antimicrobials in animals must address these underlying issues.

(Source: WHO website)

The differences between bacteria and viruses - Dr Tina Joshi, Lecturer in Molecular Microbiology

"While both bacteria and viruses are capable of causing infections, there are some fundamental differences between the two microorganisms.

Did you know that viruses do not have their own cell machinery? This means that they use the host’s cell to survive and replicate (reproduce). For example, viruses that infect humans will enter the human and replicate in specific cells that they target. The virus will enter those human cells and “tell” the cell machinery to make more virus copies! This is almost like a “hijacking” of the cell. The cell then produces virus parts like proteins, RNA and DNA, which are bought together and thus more copies of the virus are made. Eventually these copies/new viruses break out of the human cell and go on to infect new host cells. Viruses cannot multiply or survive for long without using a living host.

Viruses also have a different structure to bacteria - they are made up of proteins, glycoproteins and nucleic acids only. Bacteria have their own cell wall, have their own cellular content and are able to reproduce and survive by themselves. Viruses are very tiny compared to bacteria- approximately 1000 times smaller (in nanometres - nm) whereas bacteria are measured in micrometres (µm). 

Finally, antibiotics will kill or damage bacteria only. Antiviral drugs are needed to combat viruses, and antivirals are usually designed to target and stop the virus replication process.”