The bacteria that antibiotics don't win anymore

Italy black jersey, surpassed only by Greece and Spain. But, for the record, there are two small positive news.
The first is that in Italy, for 2018, there is a slight decrease in resistance for eight special surveillance, that is eight germs responsible for the most common hospital infections. Some names of germs, for those who find them in laboratory reports: Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae.

These germs are involved in infections (as suggested also by their name, ed), mainly hospital; eg sepsis (blood infections, ed), pneumonia, urinary tract infections. Especially striking are those who are "fragile", such as the elderly or those with few immune defenses, said Massimo Galli, professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Milan, Sacco Hospital and President of the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (Simit).

And how come these infections would be falling? Probably because more attention is being paid to the use of antibiotics in the hospital. And also in veterinary medicine: in 70 percent of the cases antibiotics are used in cattle or chicken farms, but also in fish; to fight infections, but also for auxological purposes, that is to say to promote the growth of the animals themselves.

Second good news. Italian medicine also ethical – comments Matteo Bassetti, professor of infectious diseases at the San Martino Hospital in Genoa and President of the Italian Society of Infectious Therapy (Sita) -. It is true that many antibiotic-resistant infections occur in hospitals, but because we try to treat everyone, even the most fragile patients who inevitably face these problems.

For the question it remains open. Not surprisingly, the World Awareness Week on the use of antibiotics has been promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) from tomorrow to Sunday.
The birth of bacterial resistance is not only a hospital problem – where, moreover, there is a real abuse: why prescribe a week's prophylaxis for an orthopedic operation, when only one day would be enough? -, but it is born above all in the territory.

Too many people take antibiotics today: when they get the flu, for example. A hot topic from here on out. Influenza virus: the antibiotic fights bacteria, serves no purpose (and does damage) against flu viruses, better to fight them (and prevent them) with the vaccine.
For we continue to abuse antibiotics. Do-it-yourself accomplices (if I have an old box of these pills in my house I will take some at the first symptoms: very bad) and the connivance of doctors and pharmacists, perhaps at the request of patients, who prescribe them and dispense them (so , as a cover). And they hear people say they are on antibiotics. But if one does not feel well, is it not better to go to bed and not infect others? (VAT payments permitting …). And don't you vaccinate as a prevention?

But let's return to the problem resistant germs. Strains of bacteria called New Delhi have appeared in Tuscany, insensitive to the most common antibiotics: 136 cases since November 2018, lethal in thirty out of a hundred patients. An emergency.
The problem is to find new drugs to fight them. Pharmaceutical companies, which had withdrawn from research in recent years – attracted by the study of molecules for chronic diseases to be given to patients for life! -, they are reinvesting, aware that the problem can represent a new business. And they are churning out new antibiotics.

Then there are alternatives to drugs, in the studio. An example is phages – explains Galli -. Viruses capable of infecting bacteria and destroying them, as demonstrated by Mario Corbellino in my group.
The lesson comes from the river Ganges, in India. When cholera vibrios appear in its super-culined waters, there is also an increase in phages.
Moral: taking inspiration from situations far away from us, you can find suggestions to solve the problems of our house.