It’s true, vaccines can help against antibiotic resistance and they can do it in so many different ways. Speaking of bacterial vaccines, for example against pneumococcus, the most fearsome strains are also those resistant to various antibiotics. So if you get the pneumococcus vaccine, you’re not getting a bacterium that could be antibiotic resistant. And the more antibiotics are used – the more they are misused – the more resistance grows. In this sense, by reducing infections from antibiotic-resistant strains, fewer antibiotics are used and thus less antibiotic resistance is generated. Above all, the risk of catching a strain of pneumococcus which could also be very dangerous is avoided.
Pneumococcal pneumonia
Vaccines, however, can also help fight antibiotic resistance indirectly: for example, when you catch the flu and have a fever, perhaps you take an antibiotic improperly. This too is a generator of antibiotic resistance and in this sense vaccines against viruses can discourage the improper use of these drugs. Last but not least, a role is played by veterinary vaccines: they too could help to use less antibiotics in animal husbandry. Let us not forget, in fact, that most of the antibiotics that create antibiotic resistance are not those used for human health but those used in large farms to keep animals healthy. In this way, by vaccinating animals against bacteria or viruses that can affect them, fewer antibiotics should be used.
Will we ever have a vaccine against Streptococcus type A?
Send your questions to [email protected]
*Paolo Bonanni is Professor of Hygiene at the University of Florence and Scientific Coordinator of the scientific alliance “Ilcalendar for Life”