Available evidence and potential for vaccines for reduction in antibiotic prescriptions

ABSTRACT

Bacterial antibiotic resistance is a public health issue. It means that drugs become ineffective, infections persist and have a huge impact on the health of patients and their spreading increases. To address a complex threat such as bacterial antibiotic resistance different and integrated approaches are needed including discovery of new antibiotics, improvement of diagnostics tools and improvement of antibiotic stewardship. Absolutely relevant are prevention of infections as well as decrease in the use of antibiotics. Vaccines are an important tool in the fight against bacterial antibiotic resistance and can help prevent it in several ways. Indeed, vaccines are highly effective in preventing diseases that might otherwise require the use of antibiotics to treat symptoms and associated complications. Preventing infections through vaccination helps reduce the need for and widespread and inappropriate use of antibiotics, including for secondary bacterial infections.

KEYWORDS:

• Antibiotics
• bacterial antibiotic resistance
• vaccines
• immunization
• prevention

Acknowledgments

The Author wishes to acknowledge the scientific contribution of Federico Marchetti to this review.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.