Saving Lives and Reducing Antibiotics: The Vaccine Advantage!
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an emergent, dynamic issue of growing global significance, with the potential to become a significant threat to health. The cases of misuse and overuse of antibiotics bear witness to the fact that they form part of the key causes of this development as new paths form as a result of resistance to treatment. To the World Health Organization (WHO), AMR is not only depressants―infections become hard to treat, but they are also prone to progress to severe health complications and even death in the near future, (WHO, 2024). This blog post attempts to explain how vaccines are a potential strength against AMR because they lower the utilization of antibiotics.
The Growing Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance
AMR is a multi sided problem which is affected by diverse factors including, inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics, self medication and the enormous use of antibiotics in agriculture (Ventola, 2015). At least 2.8 million people in the USA are infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria each year and this leads to more than 35,000 deaths (CDC, 2019). This too is also costly, with billions spent annually in healthcare costs and lost productivity (WHO, 2024).
