All health professionals have various obligations within their professional activities. In order to offer optimal service to patients, preparation is required that must receive constant updates. A common problem, though, is the wrong prescribing of drugs, which drives drug resistance. For this reason, one of the recent proposals is the creation of the Day Against Bacterial Resistance.
All part of the encounter “Antimicrobial resistance: comprehensive approach. One health. Urgent Necessary Actions “ organized by UNAM. In the virtual meeting, Dr. Mauricio Rodríguez Álvarez, from the Faculty of Medicine, explained that the University Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance (PUCRA) has open online courses (MOOC), infographics and publications to document the severity of antimicrobial resistance .
He added that education for undergraduate and graduate medical students, first-level care physicians, as well as raising awareness of patients about what antimicrobial resistance is, caused by the abuse of antibiotics, is one of the antidotes to combat this serious and growing public health problem.
At the table “Educational Actions”, moderated by the president of the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico (ANMM), José Halabe Cherem, the head of the Clinical Research Branch of the Faculty of Medicine (FM) of UNAM, Rosa María Wong Chew, highlighted the severity of antibacterial resistance.
At the meeting organized by the UNAM, through the University Health Research Program (PUIS) and the ANMM, Adolfo René Méndez Cruz, from the Faculty of Higher Studies (FES) Iztacala of the UNAM, said that universities have responsibility for that students understand the resistance generated by antibiotics and their irrational use, which has led to the use of three and up to four antibiotics during the pandemic.
In turn, María Guadalupe Castro Martínez, director of the La Salle University School of Medicine, pointed out that more than 50 percent of the use is done on an outpatient basis for frequent infections that do not require the use of antibiotics, such as infections upper respiratory tract.
To educate on the subject, he proposed promoting a Day Against Bacterial Resistance, to raise awareness among the population. In addition to organizing an event on the subject in which experts and undergraduate and graduate students participate.
Jorge Eugenio Valdez García, president of the Mexican Association of Faculties and Schools of Medicine, AC, agreed on the need to promote a culture of less use of antibiotics and stressed that antimicrobial resistance is a public health problem that involves hospital sectors , outpatient service, offices and doctors.
Accurate diagnostics
At the table “Essential actions to mitigate the use of antimicrobials in the country and in sectors”, coordinated by Samuel Ponce de León, head of the PUIS, René Arredondo Hernández, from the Faculty of Medicine, stressed that actions can be implemented to achieve high hygienic quality in hospital work; optimize wastewater treatment with disinfection methods that eliminate bacteria and resistance genes; consider pretreatments in hospital wastewater before discharge to general drainage, and that health personnel carry out adequate hygiene.
Likewise, research is required to adequately characterize when resistance occurs and define what are the risks of finding resistance genes or resistant bacteria in certain environments, as well as what may be the maximum allowed values that an official Mexican standard adopts, which we lack. .
Later, José Luis Soto Hernández, from the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, stressed the importance of managing antibiotics in the outer query, because that’s where the most is used.
In addition, he added, being aware of the use of antibiotics also helps minimize erroneous or delayed diagnoses. Knowing the clinical practice guidelines helps to ensure that the correct drug, dose and duration are selected when it is really needed, he argued at the table.
Inadequate prescription
During the table “Challenges and realities of the prescription of antibiotics”, Guadalupe Miranda Novales, from the Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI of the IMSS, assured that the clinics near the pharmacies continue to prescribe antibiotics although they are not needed on several occasions.
Diseases such as respiratory, diarrheal and urinary tract infections have other types of treatments, but antibiotics are used and it promotes the problem of resistance. The viral etiology and the self-limited nature of most cases of pharyngitis and diarrhea are not taken into account either.
And what do you think about the proposal to create the Day Against Bacterial Resistance?
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