208
care facilities, which may be located far away from their homes. This is not a matter
of compliance but a matter of ability. That is the reason why there is a great need for
antibiotics to be more easily available and in an adequate number to cover the needs
of every country around the world (de With et al. 2016).
A phenomenon that is mostly observed in developing countries is the over-thecounter buy or improper use of antibiotics, which is attributed mainly to poor education of the population. However, improper antibiotic use and self medication are
problems that also concern developed countries. Especially, in developed countries,
it is observed the use of the leftovers of the drugs from previous treatment courses
which may be expired or not suitable for the current health condition of a patient
without taking any advice from a physician. This phenomenon is called “self
medication’‘and is another factor that promotes the development of antimicrobial
resistance at the community level. The worst scenario is the prescription of the leftovers of drugs from parents to their children or between family members (Selgelid
2007; WHO 2002, 2015).
The hygienic conditions, proper sanitation, and good food preparation play an
important role in the prevention of the spread of infections both in hospital units as
well as at the community level. The health care workers are obliged to use barrier
precautions to protect themselves and prevent the spread of infections between different patients and other members of the health care staff in the health care units.
The use of gloves, masks, proper hand hygiene and disinfection constitute some of
the main methods, which aim to protect the spread of infections in health care units.
The presence of a consultant specialized in infectious diseases in health care units
is vital and contributes to the improvement of infectious disease management and
control (Allcock et al. 2017; Okeke et al. 2005; Dik et al. 2016).
Even though there is an urgent need for the development of new antibiotics due
to high rate emergence and spreading of antimicrobial resistance and multi drug
resistant bacterial pathogens, the interest of pharmaceutical companies to invest in
the discovery of new antibiotics during the last decades decreased dramatically.
This is one of the factors, which contributed to the presence of hard to treat bacterial
infections. There is a variety of reasons blamed for the decreased preference of
pharmaceutical industries to invest money for the research and development of new
antibiotics. The fact that antibiotics are drugs that are used for short periods against
infections renders them less profitable for pharmaceutical companies in comparison
to drugs that are used for the treatment of chronic diseases. For example, the duration of the treatment with drugs used for the therapy of diabetes mellitus, arterial
hypertension and cancer lasts for much longer periods of time or even lifelong and
those diseases plague a larger amount of population. These are some of the reasons,
which render the drugs that are used for the therapy of chronic diseases more profitable for pharmaceutical companies in comparison to antimicrobial drugs.
To delay the emergence of antimicrobial resistance, physicians try to hold in
reserve some antibiotics and prescribe them in cases when they are truly needed and
if more established antibiotics were used at first and are currently unable to treat an
infection (Fishman 2006). This is in contrast with the drugs used for chronic diseases that are immediately prescribed by the physicians if needed and without
A. Valsamatzi-Panagiotou et al.
care facilities, which may be located far away from their homes. This is not a matter
of compliance but a matter of ability. That is the reason why there is a great need for
antibiotics to be more easily available and in an adequate number to cover the needs
of every country around the world (de With et al. 2016).
A phenomenon that is mostly observed in developing countries is the over-thecounter buy or improper use of antibiotics, which is attributed mainly to poor education of the population. However, improper antibiotic use and self medication are
problems that also concern developed countries. Especially, in developed countries,
it is observed the use of the leftovers of the drugs from previous treatment courses
which may be expired or not suitable for the current health condition of a patient
without taking any advice from a physician. This phenomenon is called “self
medication’‘and is another factor that promotes the development of antimicrobial
resistance at the community level. The worst scenario is the prescription of the leftovers of drugs from parents to their children or between family members (Selgelid
2007; WHO 2002, 2015).
The hygienic conditions, proper sanitation, and good food preparation play an
important role in the prevention of the spread of infections both in hospital units as
well as at the community level. The health care workers are obliged to use barrier
precautions to protect themselves and prevent the spread of infections between different patients and other members of the health care staff in the health care units.
The use of gloves, masks, proper hand hygiene and disinfection constitute some of
the main methods, which aim to protect the spread of infections in health care units.
The presence of a consultant specialized in infectious diseases in health care units
is vital and contributes to the improvement of infectious disease management and
control (Allcock et al. 2017; Okeke et al. 2005; Dik et al. 2016).
Even though there is an urgent need for the development of new antibiotics due
to high rate emergence and spreading of antimicrobial resistance and multi drug
resistant bacterial pathogens, the interest of pharmaceutical companies to invest in
the discovery of new antibiotics during the last decades decreased dramatically.
This is one of the factors, which contributed to the presence of hard to treat bacterial
infections. There is a variety of reasons blamed for the decreased preference of
pharmaceutical industries to invest money for the research and development of new
antibiotics. The fact that antibiotics are drugs that are used for short periods against
infections renders them less profitable for pharmaceutical companies in comparison
to drugs that are used for the treatment of chronic diseases. For example, the duration of the treatment with drugs used for the therapy of diabetes mellitus, arterial
hypertension and cancer lasts for much longer periods of time or even lifelong and
those diseases plague a larger amount of population. These are some of the reasons,
which render the drugs that are used for the therapy of chronic diseases more profitable for pharmaceutical companies in comparison to antimicrobial drugs.
To delay the emergence of antimicrobial resistance, physicians try to hold in
reserve some antibiotics and prescribe them in cases when they are truly needed and
if more established antibiotics were used at first and are currently unable to treat an
infection (Fishman 2006). This is in contrast with the drugs used for chronic diseases that are immediately prescribed by the physicians if needed and without
A. Valsamatzi-Panagiotou et al.