Today we celebrate European Antibiotic Awareness Day. Why is it worth it? Today we celebrate the European Antibiotic Awareness Day. Why is it worth talking about them?
Let’s first find out what bacteria are. They are small, visible only under a microscope, living organisms that are ubiquitous – they are found in virtually every environment and living organisms. They can form communities (biofilms), some of which are sensitive to extreme environmental conditions, and there are approximately five quintillion of them on Earth (that’s a really large number).
There are so-called “good” and “bad” bacteria. The good ones are present in organisms, including humans, supplying the ingredients necessary for life and protecting them against pathogenic bacteria (e.g. intestinal microflora). They are also necessary for the production of dairy or silage and can decompose virtually any substance, thanks to which they are successfully used in biological sewage treatment plants. Thanks to them, it is also possible to obtain, among others, insulin. “Bad” bacteria, on the other hand, cause infections in humans, animals and plants. They are the cause of many serious diseases, such as: diphtheria, whooping cough, tuberculosis, syphilis, sepsis, angina and pneumonia. 
Antibiotics can be effective against them. They are produced by… bacteria and fungi. They are an important weapon for them to fight for survival in the natural environment. Thanks to them, they kill or inhibit the growth of other, competing microorganisms. When the world production of penicillin began in 1945, it was hailed as a “miracle drug”.
Unfortunately, along with the increase in the use of antibiotics in medicine, an increasing ineffectiveness of therapy began to be observed – bacteria became resistant to the antibiotics used. Moreover, there are so-called multi-resistant bacterial strains that are ineffective against most existing antibiotics. These include: staphylococcus aureus, coli bacillus, pneumonia bacillus and pneumococci. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria forces the search for new drugs to fight infections and infectious diseases. Unfortunately, this is a very time-consuming task, and bacteria are very often one step ahead of scientists…
Therefore, on the European Antibiotic Awareness Day, it is worth reminding about the prudent use of antibiotics – overusing them (e.g. during a cold or flu) leads to an increase in the number of so-called antibiotics. resistant strains and reduce the effectiveness of treatment of other diseases. We should also always take the medicine as prescribed by the doctor. How long antibiotics will be effective depends on each of us.