Recently, the results of a global research report show that the concentration of antibiotics in many rivers around the world exceeds the standard, and the antibiotic with the highest concentration exceeding the standard can exceed the maximum safety limit of human body by 300 times. This situation is most serious in developing countries or economically backward areas such as Asia and Africa, but it also exists in developed countries such as Europe and America. Coincidentally, a recent investigation by a domestic media reporter found that the concentration of antibiotics in the Yangtze River basin was high and the aquatic ecosystem was destroyed. What is even more worrying is that relevant surveys show that about 40% of pregnant women in the Yangtze River Delta have detected antibiotics in their urine, and nearly 80% of children have detected veterinary antibiotics in their urine. Some antibiotics detected have been banned in clinic. What does this mean?

1. This is a new discovery of bacterial drug resistance.

What is bacterial resistance? It is a common phenomenon that the bacteria causing diseases are less sensitive to human body or even insensitive to antibiotics. In recent years, the problem of bacterial drug resistance has become increasingly prominent, especially in developing countries. Who has warned many times around the world to pay attention to bacterial resistance and use antibiotics rationally, otherwise we will have no antibiotics available in the future. China is a big country using antibiotics, and it is also one of the countries with serious abuse of antibiotics.

More than a decade ago, the irrational use of antibiotics was mainly concentrated in hospitals and animal husbandry, and the state has also noticed this. Therefore, since 2009, the state has gradually increased the supervision of the use of antibiotics in hospitals, and has carried out special rectification activities for antibacterial drugs for many years, introducing the so-called strictest in history. Restraining order? The Administrative Measures for Clinical Application of Antibiotics and the Guiding Principles for Clinical Application of Antibiotics, which guide the rational clinical use of antibiotics, have also strengthened the supervision of illegal use of antibiotics in animal husbandry.

After years of efforts, the abuse of antibiotics in hospitals and animal husbandry in China has been greatly improved, and the speed of bacterial resistance has gradually slowed down. However, the supervision of antibiotic water pollution is still insufficient, which is likely to become a new growth point of bacterial resistance. Therefore, this new discovery can also provide reference for the state to formulate policies to curb the excessive growth of bacterial drug resistance.

2. China residents are at great risk of exposure to antibiotics, especially pregnant women and children.

Pregnant women and children belong to a special group, and the proportion of antibiotics detected in their urine is large. If the scope of testing is expanded, it is likely that ordinary adults will have the same result, which means that the risk of antibiotic exposure of China residents is enormous. This drug, which can only be used for bacterial infections, has been ubiquitous in our daily life.

On the one hand, the long-term existence of antibiotics in the body will kill probiotics in the body, reduce immunity and lead to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria. On the other hand, decreased immunity will increase the chances of bacterial infection. If it is drug-resistant bacterial infection, it will greatly increase the difficulty of treatment, thus forming a vicious circle.

3. The construction of sewage treatment system should be strengthened.

The concentration of antibiotics in the Yangtze River basin, the most direct damage is the destruction of the Yangtze River basin ecosystem. Living in this environment for a long time, fish and other organisms will also have a certain concentration of antibiotics, which is equivalent to passive oral antibiotics after human consumption. In addition, in some rural areas, there is a habit of drinking well water directly, which is one of the reasons for the large proportion of antibiotic testing. If this phenomenon also exists in the city's tap water or drinking water, the consequences will be unimaginable. Therefore, the construction of sewage treatment system should be strengthened, on the one hand, the treatment and supervision of sewage discharge from antibiotic production enterprises should be strengthened at the source, on the other hand, the purification and monitoring of domestic water and drinking water should be strengthened to reduce the exposure risk of Chinese residents to antibiotics.

From the point of view of drinking water concentration alone, trace antibiotics are not enough to threaten health, but long-term drinking of low-dose antibiotics is the mechanism of bacterial resistance genes, especially for children and infants. There are antibiotics and drug resistance genes in drinking water. Once these drug-resistant genes are transmitted to pathogens, it will lead to human infection and even the outbreak of infectious diseases. Although antibiotic sewage will not immediately cause human illness, it is undoubtedly a potential enemy of human health. Antibiotics are essential drugs to treat bacterial infections, but the problem of bacterial resistance to antibiotics is equally prominent. Only when the whole country attaches great importance to it and makes joint efforts, our descendants will not have a day without antibiotics.

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