The excessive use of antibiotics in the face of the pandemic can make them ineffective for common diseases, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned this Wednesday, which reported a decrease in deaths from coronavirus in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Antimicrobials are life-saving drugs, but they must be used responsibly because “bacteria can develop resistance and render these drugs ineffective over time, in fact, that’s exactly what we’re seeing, “said Carissa Etienne, PAHO Director, according to the AFP news agency.
From 90 to 100% of the patients hospitalized for Covid-19 received an antibiotic when in reality “only 7% of these patients had a secondary infection that required the use of these drugs,” Etienne said at a press conference.
The data ? show that more than 90% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the Region received an antimicrobial ?, despite the fact that only 7% of these patients had a secondary infection that justified its use. https://t.co/fqBuzCsax7
– PAHO / WHO (@opsoms) November 17, 2021
Etienne claimed that countries such as Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala and Paraguay report a sudden increase in drug-resistant infections.
Therefore, PAHO calls for the responsible use of antimicrobials and asks countries to prohibit their sale without a doctor’s prescription.
In addition, PAHO noted that half of the people in Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, but many countries are lagging behind.
PAHO calls for the responsible use of antimicrobials and asks countries to ban their sale without a doctor’s prescription
Less than 20% of people are fully immunized in Guatemala, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, while in Nicaragua and Haiti it is less than 10%, he says.
The number of new cases of Covid-19 fell 5% to almost 760,000 in the Americas last week and deaths related to the disease fell by around 17% to 12,800.
The person responsible for monitoring the pandemic of PAHO, Sylvain Alighieri, does not rule out that “the virus will become endemic, but that will take years” and in the meantime there will be outbreaks even in places with high vaccination rates, up to more than 70% of vaccinated population.
Because -remember- the main role of vaccination is to reduce severe forms of the disease and deaths, not transmission.
