 Marmonette wrote:
ahh ok I see, Thanks Samone  |
welcome!
I tried
antibiotic ance medication for a while and it worked but I think my acne became resistant to it and got worse
Super acne? Drug-resistant zits on the rise
Bacteria that causes pimples increasingly capable of outsmarting antibiotics
But dermatologists say the bacteria that causes acne is increasingly
developing resistance to some commonly prescribed antibiotics, including
tetracycline and erythromycin. And while the superbug MRSA is a widely
known threat in the general medical community, some patients are
surprised to learn that the P. acnes bacterium is equally capable of
rebelling against drugs and developing superpowers. It’s acne gone wild.
“There’s been so much attention to MRSA and other kinds of resistant
bacteria which truly can kill you, whereas acne doesn’t kill you,” says
Dr. Alan Fleischer, a professor and chair of dermatology at Wake Forest
University School of Medicine. “And yet we doctors see patients who have
resistant acne, and we do need to be cognizant of changes. The bacteria
are changing, are adapting and becoming resistant.”
Antibiotics are one of the most frequently prescribed treatments for
acne. They target the bacteria and inflammation, and often are key in
clearing up the patient’s skin. But as antibiotic-resistant acne becomes
a growing concern, dermatologists are moving away from using
antibiotics as a primary weapon against acne, fearing that the long-held
go-to treatments may be contributing to communal antibiotic resistance.
If they do prescribe antibiotics, it may be for only a limited time,
usually a few months, and it's often combined with another medication
that can lessen the drug resistance. Previously, patients might have
continued on antibiotics for years.
“The strong survive, the mutants survive and they become resistant,”
says Dr. Jonette Keri, a University of Miami dermatologist.
Public health threat?
While drug-resistant acne can be devastating, the real danger is that it contributes to deadly drug-resistant staph infections.
“The dangerous thing about putting zillions of folks on antibiotics
is that this pressures bacteria to develop resistance methods,” says Dr.
Peter Lio, a Northwestern University dermatologist. “So while the acne
bacteria almost never causes life-threatening infection, the ways that
it can be resistant to our antibiotics can be passed over to bacteria
that can cause life-threatening infection, which means that our only weapons against the bad guys suddenly do not work anymore.
“If it became bad enough, it would be like the days before antibiotics, when infection was a common cause of death.”
Acne is a common teenage ailment, afflicting about 75 percent to 90
percent of teens. Even adult acne may be more common than many realize,
with about 50 percent of adults suffering from acne at some degree,
dermatologists say.
“Acne is a really tough disease,” Lio says. “We can make a big
difference with many patients, but it’s a humbling disease; it brings
people down. People can be incredibly depressed coming in, so our job is
to do whatever it takes to make them better.”
Between 10 percent and 30 percent of acne patients harbor at least
some resistant bacteria, dermatologists say. Few studies have been
published about drug-resistant acne, but French researchers found in
2001 that more than 50 percent of the isolates of the bug P. acnes were
resistant to erythromycin, a commonly prescribed antibiotic.
When the antibiotics stop working for a patient, the results are
devastating. In most cases of drug resistance, the antibiotics initially
work, and patients think their skin has finally cleared, maybe for good
this time. Then, all of a sudden the acne comes back — in some cases,
worse than ever before.
A bevy of effective treatments
Bacteria, resistant or not, is only one contributer to the
formation of a zit. Four things have to happen for people to get a
pimple: First, oil increases in a pore. Second, the skin cells that line
the pore get sticky from the extra oil, creating a clog in that pore.
Third, bacteria feasts on all that oil and begin to overgrow. Finally,
the body responds to the bacteria, causing the inflammation.
“The fact is, because acne is much more complicated than a simple
infection, there really are a wide variety of other approaches that are
very useful,” says Fleischer of Wake Forest University.
Doctors found that combining benzoyl peroxide with an antibiotic
counteracts the drug resistance. And there are plenty of other methods
dermatologists use to attack acne, including using anti-inflammatory
drugs such as retinoids and isotretinoin, most commonly known as the
brand name Accutane.
Fewer dermatologists now rely on antibiotics alone to treat acne. A
recent University of Pennsylvania study found that people on antibiotics
were about twice as likely to develop an upper respiratory tract
infection. And a study Fleischer co-authored in 2005 found a significant
shift from dermatologists prescribing antibiotic to non-antibiotic
treatments.
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