Antibiotics no longer deliver KO punch
Published: 06 Jan 2017
Antibiotic resistance have become more common in Singapore, with several thousand cases each year. It has also been flagged as a serious concern worldwide. Antibiotic resistance happens when antibiotics are overused or misused and microbes such as bacteria and viruses become resistant to the effects of medicines that previously killed them. This leads to common and life-threatening infections such as pneumonia and gonorrhoea, and post-operative infections becoming increasingly untreatable.
Since the mid-2000s, local hospitals have been working on a type of superbug called Methicilin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, which has seen results in patients, said Associate Professor Dale Fisher from NUS Medicine’s Department of Medicine. Singapore is developing a national action plan to tackle the problem of resistant bacteria which could include educating the public on which illnesses should be treated with antibiotics, and stepping up monitoring of their use. In hospitals, efforts include improving hand hygiene, checking patients to see if they carry the bug and isolating them from other patients if needed.
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