(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Antibiotics not only heal infections: They also staunch bleeding after childbirth; help cleanse people living in dirty cities; and protect those who work with animals.
However, hospitals across the world believe that the overuse of such medicines leads to the spread of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.
Their excessive use over the past decades has brought us to the brink of a post-antibiotic era.
The spread of 'antimicrobial resistance, as experts call the problem, means that simple illnesses could turn into lethal ones, and that medical advances in surgery or chemotherapy could be lost as doctors can no longer stop infections.
'To some extent, this is happening now, said Elizabeth Tayler, a senior expert on antimicrobial resistance at the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva.
Resistant bugs kill an estimated 25,000 people each year in Europe and a similar number in the United States, she said.
For example, intensive care units struggle with this problem, as patients whose immune systems are already weakened catch pneumonia that is caused by hard-to-treat superbugs.
The medical aid group MSF has sounded the alarm in crisis regions such as Iraq and Syria, where very large shares of patients are resistant to multiple drugs.
People tend to take too many drugs in crisis situations, said Burtscher, who has witnessed it in Afghanistan, Iraq, and in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.
'It's soothes them in a way, she said. 'It gives them comfort.
It would be a mistake, however, to see war zones as the only breeding grounds for nasty bacteria.
Antibiotics can be bought without prescriptions in several southern European countries, she notes, increasing the risk of overuse.
A EU briefing paper showed in November that a certain type of superbug that can cause blood and lung infections is now endemic in Malta, Italy, Greece and Turkey.
WHO and other organisations have been lobbying governments, hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and patients to adopt simple and effective measures.
For example, doctors should routinely ask patients what medications they have been taking, and they should tell them how to avoid washing hands.
WHO has recently issued new guidelines to surgeons, telling them to cut down on unnecessary antibiotics use.
Changing attitudes is difficult, even if progress has been made in Western countries, Tayler said.
'If there is a chance that there is an infection, no doctor wants to miss an infection she said, explaining why many medics still hand out antibiotics when in doubt.
WHO has developed an action plan that puts a strong focus on improving sanitation and hygiene around the globe, because no new, more effective drugs are expected anytime soon.
'Currently, most major pharmaceutical companies have stopped research in this area, the action plan says.
Companies fear that anything they develop will soon become useless as bacteria adapt to the new drugs.
In September, world leaders at the United Nations in New York therefore issued a statement that called on governments, pharmaceutical companies, research institutions and non-governmental groups to all support the much-needed research efforts.
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