Every year in November, World Antibiotic Awareness Week is held, starting from 2020, a fixed date has been set – from November 18 to 24.

The initiator of the relevant week was the World Health Organization in 2015. The purpose of this week is to solve the problem of people’s ignorance about antibiotics, which leads to their unjustified and incorrect use. Resistance to antibiotics is a serious threat that appears as a result of irrational use of these drugs.

Interesting Facts

• Microbiologist Alexander Fleming is considered the inventor of penicillin, which is a component of many antibiotics. But scientists have found evidence that as early as 350-550 the inhabitants of the historical area of ​​Nubia used tetracycline. The remains of the substance were discovered during the study of the skeletons of the Dakhleh oasis in Africa.
• In 1931, the pharmaceutical company Bayer developed the first antimicrobial drug Prontozil by combining sulfonamide and a dye. 2 years later, the drug managed to cure a boy who was dying of staphylococcal septicemia. Thus began the “golden era” of antibiotics.
• SPP is resistance to antimicrobial drugs. The problem is related to the incorrect and uncontrolled use of antibiotics, which endangers the achievements of modern medicine. Every year, more than 700,000 people die worldwide due to antibiotic resistance.
• Antibiotics do not help in the treatment of viral diseases. Their beneficial effect extends to the destruction of disease-causing bacteria. Medicines cannot be combined with other drugs to avoid unpredictable effects.
• Teisobactin is a new antibiotic developed by inventors in 2015. This is the first fundamentally new drug in the last 30 years. Scientists have created a special miniature iChip device. With its help, bacteria were grown in the ground, thanks to which a product with antibiotic properties was invented.

• Sad facts: a decrease in the effectiveness of antibiotics significantly complicates the treatment of infectious diseases (tuberculosis, gonorrhea, pneumonia, etc.), resistance to antibiotics is the cause of longer hospitalizations and increased mortality.