Antibiotic Resistance Report: Healthcare Worker Hygiene and CPOs

This report addresses the critical issue of antibiotic resistance, emphasizing the importance of healthcare worker hygiene in minimizing infections and reducing the need for antibiotics. It suggests that proper cleaning and disinfection of gowns, aprons, and uniforms, alongside rigorous hand hygiene practices, are crucial in preventing the transmission of health-associated pathogens. The report highlights the role of healthcare professionals in spreading multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens, which are often derived from patients' endogenous flora. Furthermore, it explains why carbapenemase-producing organisms (CPOs) are difficult to treat due to their resistance to most antimicrobial therapies, particularly carbapenems, and their ability to produce carbapenemases. The report references key literature to support its claims and provides valuable insights into combating antibiotic resistance.

First Name 1
Antibiotic resistance
Student’s Name
Name of the Class
Professor’s Name
City
State
The Date

First Name 2
Antibiotic resistance
What I would suggest for minimising antibiotic resistance
The suggestion is personal hygiene of healthcare workers to prevent nosocomial
infections and reduce prescription of antibiotics. In this case, personal hygiene would include
cleaning and disinfection of gowns, plastic aprons and uniforms. It would also include cleaning
hands before and after attending to a patient. Transmission of health-associated pathogens tends
to happen through hands because the healthcare provider’s hands may be contaminated through
direct contact with a patient or indirectly from touching colonised surfaces.
According to World Health Organization, a significant number of patients are affected by
healthcare-associated infections, most of which are caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR)
pathogens (WHO, 2014). Hence, healthcare professionals play a major role in transmitting MDR
pathogens, which are thought to originate from the endogenous flora of patients (Caron &
Mousa, 2010). This suggestion does not ignore that gloves are used to prevent cross-
contamination in hospitals. The gloves cannot be used as a substitute for hand hygiene since
there is a risk of contamination when removing the gloves. This suggestion would help to
minimise the use of antibiotics and address the issue other resistance in the long run.
Why Cabapenemase Producing Organisms (CPOs) are difficult to treat
CPOs are difficult to treat since they are resistant to most antimicrobial therapies. Due to
their multidrug-resistant nature, gram-negative pathogens are often treated with carbapenem
antibiotics. However, CPOs are becoming difficult to treat because they produce
carbapenemases, an enzyme that hydrolyses carbapenems (Sekirov et al., 2016). CPOs also tend
to be resistant to multi-therapies.

First Name 3
Bibliography
Caron, W. & Mousa, S., 2010. Prevention strategies for antimicrobial resistance: a systematic
review of the literature. Infection and drug resistance, 3(1), pp.25-33.
Sekirov, I. et al., 2016. Epidemiologic and Genotypic Review of Carbapenemase-Producing
Organisms in British Columbia between 2008 and 2014. Journal of clinical microbiology, 54(2),
pp.317–27.
WHO, 2014. Good hand hygiene by health workers protects patients from drug resistant
infections. [Online] Available at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/hand-
hygiene/en/ [Accessed 10 October 2017].