It is our responsibility to rein in misuse of antibiotics to avert looming disaster

A scratch to your skin by your own nails could in the future leave you fighting for your life. A visit to your doctor would be a waste of time as only luck would decide your fate.

Childbirth could once again become a deadly moment in a woman’s life. Any attempt to do a caesarean section could convert you into soup. All the diseases one can afford to ignore now would be the centre of focus since they will have no medication.

It is a future without antibiotics; others call it the post-antibiotic era. This is neither science fiction nor a learned scare.

The World Health Organisation has warned that “many common infections will no longer have a cure and, once again, could kill unabated”. The US Centers for Disease Control has pointed to the emergence of “nightmare bacteria”.

Closer home, have you ever wondered why you have to be “graduated” to stronger antibiotics every time you have common infections such as pneumonia or skin infections? Sexually transmitted infections such as gonorrhoea are also increasingly becoming a nightmare to treat for those who can still afford to suffer from them in this era.

Almost every Kenyan stands accused of having bought antibiotics over the counter, knowing not what they were going to treat.

Irrational antibiotic use is a problem the world over. Children are continuously exposed to the drugs at a tender age by parents, worsening the already monstrous problem.

This leads to bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics while no new antibiotics have been discovered since the 1980s; there has only been improvement of the existing classes.

In this part of the world, drug envelopes and drug bottles litter our streets, homes, and everywhere. These have either been consumed by us or our animals.

A visit to any farm rearing poultry or any domestic animals would start by one bumping into drug containers at the entrance. Farmers use animal drugs without consulting veterinarians or even following manufacturers’ directions.

END UP IN YOUR PLATE

There is limited knowledge about these drugs, when to use them, how to use them and the withdrawal periods that come with them. We forget that the same compounds that make these animal drugs are those that make the human ones.

Once the drugs get into animals, they end up either in your plate or cup. As one consumes these animal products, they ingest low amounts of antibiotics.

When the bacteria in the body is subjected to such sub-lethal doses, they find a way to survive these drugs such that by the time one is given medicine to treat diseases, it finds bacteria already resistant, hindering recovery.

Some of the drugs used in animals include very expensive antibiotics such as cephalosporins, which can be used to treat bronchopneumoniae in cows.

Most resource-poor Kenyans get exposed to these drugs through meat and milk. When given these drugs which they can rarely afford, they happen to have already been exposed to them. The bacteria will have developed resistance due to small levels from the foods we eat.

Antibiotic resistance is a monstrous problem staring mankind in the face. The poorest and richest in society have a role to play in preventing or decelerating antibiotic resistance. Every individual should use antibiotics only when they cannot avoid it and only when the right antibiotic is prescribed by medical personnel.

Every farmer should desist from using antibiotics randomly since, apart from affecting other consumers, their households, which consume these products daily, are at the greatest risk.

Farmers should consult qualified veterinary personnel before the use of any antibiotics on their animals. Recommended periods before slaughter or consumption of milk after animals are treated with antibiotics should also be strictly adhered to.

It is not doomsday yet, and not everything said may come to pass since research on antibiotics continues every day. However, we can never bank on uncertainty.

We have to open our eyes now, act, and stop blaming our economic status for our careless actions that may bring the world to its knees.

Dr Olum is a postgraduate student of veterinary medicine at the University of Nairobi. [email protected]