SuperbugMatteo Bassetti sounds the alarm. “Of all the infectious threats to worry about, I believe that the one closest to us right now is the silent pandemic of antibiotic resistance. This week”, which around the world is dedicated to raising awareness of the problems posed by “super bacteria”«we need to talk about it loud and clear, because this is absolutely a fact, this is not something that will happen in the future. Currently we see millions of deaths in the world every year related to antibiotic resistance. So there’s still a lot that needs to be done. We all need to do more, use antibiotics better and only when necessary. We must also try to do more in terms of diagnostics, and rapid diagnostics” to be available “in pharmacies for everyone so that these important medicines are really used only when necessary”, said the director of Infectious Diseases at the San Martino polyclinic hospital in Genoa.
The alarm
“Situations like bird flu, and especially the case of H5N5 which has never occurred in humans, are also worrying. Now we have seen H5N1 in humans, now we also have H5N5 which is a virus that is only found in animals that infects humans. This means that every time the virus moves to humans, it will mutate and it is clear that these mutations will sooner or later also cause the virus to be transmitted from human to human,” explained Bassetti.
Regarding the Marburg virus epidemic in Ethiopia, another recent warning was, “I believe that these viruses – dengue fever, Marburg, Ebola, Lassa fever – are cyclical, but fortunately up to now they have been limited to the African continent and I am sure they will remain there. We certainly need to be vigilant, we need to ensure that this transmission does not reach abroad, but I think the problem closest to us is on the one hand antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a clear and existing fact that is affecting people in our country every day, and on the other side is the imminent potential of bird flu.”
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