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This week the European Day for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics has been celebrated. I say "celebrate" by saying something, because the forecast is apocalyptic. In 2050 it is estimated that there will be more deaths from antibiotic-resistant superbugs than from cancer. And there is no need to travel to the future: in Spain this problem already takes 3,000 lives a year. 50% more than the inhabitants of my town, if you forgive me the anecdotal comparison.

What are the superbugs?

They are bacteria resistant to most antibiotics. If you have the bad luck of being infected by them, it is possible that the antibiotic tickles the superbug. It will follow its own with its plan to dominate your organism and the infection may progress with a fatal outcome: septicemia and death. (I know, I'm getting a little dramatic).

How do superbacteria form?

Imagine antibiotics as fighters that attack bacteria. They identify each bacterium by some specific features and when they see their target clear, they load it. The problem appears when we do not make good use of antibiotics. For example, when we are better in the middle of the treatment and leave the box halfway. Error! If we don't finish off, we give half-dead bacteria a chance to learn to defend themselves against the antibiotic. It is as if our body became a gym where bacteria can train against fighters. It also occurs when we use antibiotics for viral diseases such as a flu or a cold. Remember that antibiotics kill bacteria but not viruses.

Superbacteria: the superheroes of evil

As they learn to defend themselves, the bacteria "mutate" and acquire new powers like Marvel superheroes. These are some of his favorites:

1. They put on a shield and prevent the antibiotic from entering inside.

2. They disguise and change their appearance so that antibiotics do not recognize them (as if they put on sunglasses and a wig to go unnoticed).

3. They use repellents. Yes, bacteria learn to make a substance that neutralizes the antibiotic.

Superbacteria can learn two or three super powers at the same time. And if that were not enough, they are very corporativist and they pass the super powers of each other. The superbug that knows how to use the shield against antibiotics teaches the superpower to the superbug that the repellent has discovered. And backwards. With so much mutation and superpower the movie that we can end up watching in 2050 will not be Marvel, but horror.

Bacteriophages VS. superbacteria: the battle

Imagine a bacteriophage like a spider perched on the bacteria, with its head on top. Below it extends its legs like tentacles and attaches to the surface of the bacteria to inject their DNA. For what? To reproduce and transmit their evil! Within the bacteria many new faguitos are born. They reproduce like crazy until they no longer fit and the bacteria explodes: "BOOOOOM!" In the process he dies freeing his children , who are also phages and are going to infect another cell. In summary, bacteriophages can be a plan B for superbugs.

the fight against superbugs can a "child's play"

Small World Initiative (SWI) is a citizen science project that was born at Yale University. It was adopted as a pioneer in Europe in the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Complutense University of Madrid under the name of MicroMundo . While crowdfunding is a citizen collaboration initiative to raise money, this initiative is called crowdsourcing and seeks citizen collaboration to gather bacteria. In Spain, more than 500 secondary and high school students have collected bacteria from the most unsuspected plaque sites. The bacteria are then sown in the laboratory, together with super bacteria, to see if the flute sounds by chance - something like what happened to Alexander Fleming with penicillin - and new antibiotics are discovered. The project has a double function: finding new antibiotics and awakening scientific vocations among young people.

Stop the superbugs: everyone's thing

It is true that from the government, industry or hospitals, more measures must be implemented to combat superbugs. But it is also true that we, who in the end are the gyms where superbacteria train, have much to do. More than 90% of doctors in the United Kingdom say they have prescribed drugs unnecessarily due to the patient's own pressure. Please, never press in the consultation or in the pharmacy. Antibiotics always under prescription. It is advice from your pharmacist.

CONSULTING ROOM

Consultas: papel@elmundo.es and @Papel_EM

  • Lately I hear a lot about the menstrual cup, is it as good a method as they say? It seems to me a good method as long as basic hygiene measures are taken into account. The frequency of change must be similar to other methods. We must sterilize the cup between period and period, that we can not laziness! It should not be washed in public toilets. I don't even recommend using it to water the plants as an Argentine influencer on Instagram has proposed. The best thing that can be done with a residue like blood is ... get rid of it.

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