They are the go-to palliative for hundreds of millions of people around the world when migraine strikes, when the aches and pains of a cold or flu kick in, and to relieve post-surgery soreness.<\/p>\n
But the misuse and overuse of paracetamol and painkillers such as ibuprofen is contributing to a potentially epidemic-causing crisis in medicine: the rise of bacteria and related diseases that are resistant to antibiotics.<\/p>\n
In a paper published in the journal Nature Antimicrobials And Resistance, scientists at the University of South Australia said they have found that \u00adparacetamol and ibuprofen are \u201camplifying\u201d antimicrobial resistance, which they described as \u201ca\u00a0global threat to public health\u201d.<\/p>\n
The researchers said their paper \u201cprovides evidence that medication used in pain relief, such as acetaminophen and \u00adibuprofen, when combined with (the antibiotic) ciprofloxacin, not only significantly increases mutation frequency, but also confer multiple antibiotic \u00adresistance\u201d.<\/p>\n
The authors are warning patients and doctors to \u201ccarefully consider the risks of using multiple medications\u201d, especially when prescribed for long-term treatments.<\/p>\n
Alarmingly, the team said that when paracetamol or ibuprofen are taken by patients who are treating bacterial infections such as Escherichia coli with the widely-used antibiotic ciprofloxacin, they seem to trigger \u00admutations that help the germs become \u201chighly resistant\u201d\u00a0to the antibiotic.<\/p>\n
The discovery has \u201cserious health implications\u201d,\u00a0the researchers warned, with older people in care homes said to be particularly at risk given that they are likely to be\u00a0taking\u00a0\u00ad\u201cmultiple medications\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAntibiotics have long been vital in treating infectious \u00addiseases, but their widespread overuse and misuse have \u00addriven a global rise in antibiotic-\u00adresistant bacteria,\u201d said lead researcher Assoc Prof Rietie Venter.<\/p>\n
\u201cAntibiotic resistance isn\u2019t just about antibiotics any more,\u201d\u00a0she warned. \u2013 dpa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They are the go-to palliative for hundreds of millions of people around the world when migraine strikes, when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[18564,8782,2864,12591,1757,134,524,111,139,69,3281,18565,2766,5510],"class_list":{"0":"post-16605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-amr","9":"tag-antibiotic-resistance","10":"tag-antibiotics","11":"tag-antimicrobial-resistance","12":"tag-drugs","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-medication","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-painkillers","19":"tag-superbugs","20":"tag-treatment","21":"tag-wellness"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}