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The visualization represents the relationship between the antibiotic consumption behaviour and the awareness of antimicrobial resistance of people who have been engaged in the project. Each unit is a person. Data comes from the questionnaire. Share your experience to be part of the map.
Have you ever heard about antimicrobial resistance?
How do you feel about taking antibiotics?
When did you take antibiotics last time?
The fastest the ball, the most recent the antibiotic consumption.
The more static the bubble, the oldest the antibiotic consumption.
The visualization is built following the same rule that scientists are in habit to use in laboratories to test the efficacy of antibiotics.
Antibiotic pills are positioned in a transparent lidded dish, named Petri, which is covered by bacteria.
After some coltivation hours, it is possible to observe how many bacteria have been killed by the antibiotic.
The higher the antibiotic efficacy, the more bacteria are killed, leaving an empty space around the antibiotic pill. On the contrary, the smaller that area, the lower the number of bacteria killed. The reason why bacteria survive antibiotics is because they develop resistance.
Following the same rule, in the visualization, the dimension of the white bubble stands for the person’s influence on resistance development.
Higher consumption increase resistance development and decrease the antibiotic efficacy.
The lower the antibiotic efficacy, the smaller the bubble. The higher the efficacy, the bigger the bubble.
Open the repo from your laptop to best explore the viz.
What is antimicrobial resistance?
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the major threats to global health, food security and development as it threatens the effective prevention and treatment of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi. In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared AMR to be one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.
AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines designed to kill them. This results in harder to treat infections and increased risk of disease spread, severe illness and death. Antibiotic resistance is a specific form of antimicrobial resistance occurring when bacteria overcome the use of antibiotics, and this is mainly due to their overuse and misuse.
Visual explanation of antibiotic resistance.
Source: Federal Office of Public Health [FOPH]
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The resistance of microbes to antibiotics is a natural phenomenon, developed by microbes to survive external attacks. There are ecosystems in which antimicrobial-resistant and non-resistant species coexist in a stable balance, like in the human microbiota.
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The resistance process can be intensified by other factors, such as the inappropriate use of antibiotics in humans and veterinary medicine, and poor hygiene conditions in practices, healthcare settings and in the food chain.
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Overuse and misuse of antibiotics are the main causes of bacteria resistance. Antibiotics stop and limit the growth of bacteria but, in case of resistance, their action is useless. Resistant bacteria survive the cure as the antibiotic is no more effective on them.
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Instead of disappearing, resistant bacteria keep growing and reproducing themselves. The effect is that available antibiotics are becoming less effective, while the number of diseases that we rely on antibiotics to neutralise keep increasing.
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In the end, microbes are not killed and different treatments are needed, which are not always available. Resistance is a characteristic of microorganisms and not humans, but the transmission of resistant bacteria can occur among humans, animals and the environment too.
How many resistant bacteria have been detected Worldwide?
The visualization shows how many resistant bacteria had been detected in 2020, out of the samples gathered. India is the country that identified the highest number of resistant bacteria. The colour of the bubble shows that India is also the second country in terms of samples analysed. The comparison between the number of resistant bacteria and the amount of samples taken gives the percentage of the samples in which had been found resistant bacteria (the more you test the more you have chances to detect what you are looking for).
It is important to specify that figures refer to microbes and not people. A one-person test can reveal more than one resistant microbe. Other criteria, such as the availability of antibiotics and the number of inhabitants, should also be contemplated in case of a deeper analysis.
Number of resistant bacteria observed by country in 2020.
In 2020, Switzerland has registered 158 antimicrobial resistant bacteria out of 1’958 samples taken.
Data source: Arensis
Which geographic region has the highest number of resistant bacteria in Switzerland?
In 2019, worldwide, 4.95 million deaths were estimated to be associated with resistant bacteria, of which 1.27 million were directly attributable to bacterial antimicrobial resistance.
Compared to other countries and considering the number of inhabitants and samples taken, Switzerland has an intermediate position regarding the number of antibiotic resistant microbes. In 2019, 158 resistant bacteria had been found out of 1'958 tests gathered, with a positivity rate of 8%. In Europe, among the available data, only the Nordic countries show a lower rate. Border nations, such as Germany, France and Italy register higher numbers.
Switzerland combines different socio-cultural regions, the influence of which influences antibiotic prescription practices, especially in outpatient settings. For example, French- and Italian-speaking cantons' consumption of antibiotics is higher than in German-speaking areas.
Number of bacterial samples analyzed and number of samples where resistance was detected by geographic region and year.
Data source: Anresis
Extra sources: STAR: Strategy on Antimicrobial Resistance
What is the impact of antimicrobial resistance in the future?
Resistance to antibiotics has serious consequences, causing prolonged illness and hospital stays, increasing the cost of treatments for both, patients and the health care system. Treatments involve habit changes, affecting people's and their families lives. And, in the worst scenario, this disease can lead to disability or death.
It has been estimated that in 2050, 10 million people will die due to antimicrobial resistance, which risks becoming the first cause of death, overtaking cancer. There are no exhaustive estimates as a broad range of factors contribute in the definition of these figures. But, it makes clear that the spread of antimicrobial resistance, including antibiotic resistance, is an urgent problem requiring an immediate global response.
Projected number of deaths in 2050 by cause.
Data source: Review on Antimicrobial Resistance