Doctors' tips to prevent antibiotic resistance

With flu season approaching‚ doctors advise you take your flu shots to reduce your risk of getting sick and needing to take antibiotics – which are increasingly ineffective in fighting off superbugs.

The UN's World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that superbugs‚ which cause sepsis‚ pneumonia and salmonella‚ will soon be resistant to antibiotics and has released a list of 12 bacteria that soon no drugs will be able to fight off.

Without effective antibiotics essential medical procedures‚ including organ transplants‚ Caesarean sections and chemotherapy would become more risky to perform. Globally about 700 000 people are killed yearly by drug-resistant infections.

Netcare's director of quality and systems and innovation‚ Dr Dena van den Bergh‚ said infection risk management programmes can meaningfully preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics for future generations.

“It is critical that hospitals are vigilant and able to identify any potential infection risks‚ as well as to respond rapidly to ensure that these are quickly combated.”

Intensive care specialist Professor Guy Richards‚ from the University of the Witwatersrand‚ said antibiotics prescribed by GPs for patients with flu-like symptoms were often inappropriate and that hospital doctors were just as careless.

"It can be difficult for a doctor to tell between a bacterial infection that needs an antibiotic and a viral one that does not respond to an antibiotic." Sometimes GPs gave in to pressure to unnecessarily prescribe antibiotics.

Richards recommends getting the flu injection to avoid taking an antibiotic that cannot treat flu but may increase your resistance.

Pharmacology lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Andy Gray said locally‚ multi-drug resistant tuberculosis was a major risk‚ “but [that] the top three priority bacterial infections listed by WHO are all a problem in SA hospitals”. To keep your antibiotic resistance at bay‚ here are a few tips provided by Netcare:

1) Embrace a healthy lifestyle‚ through eating a balanced nutritious diet‚ getting enough exercise‚ and practicing good hygiene.

2) Cleaning your hands regularly and thoroughly with soap in your home‚ office‚ school‚ gym and other places.

3) If you do fall ill‚ do not demand antibiotics from your doctor. Antibiotics generally do not work for viral infections‚ such as flu or the common cold.

4) If it is medically necessary to take antibiotics‚ then take them exactly as prescribed by the doctor or pharmacist. Take them continuously; do not skip any doses.

5) Do not "save" antibiotics prescribed for one illness‚ to take them when you fall ill at a later date‚ even if the illness seems the same.

6) Do not share your prescribed antibiotics with others – this can lead to misuse and fuel the development of antibiotic resistance.

7) Keep your vaccinations up to date.