Using Essential Oils against Drug-Resistant Bacteria: New Treatment Possibilities for a Global Health Priority?

Using Essential Oils against Drug-Resistant Bacteria:

New Treatment Possibilities for a Global Health Priority?

Despite the dire threat to human health posed by drug-resistant bacteria, no successful therapies have been created nor implemented on a wide-scale basis. But the situation is not hopeless. Research on and usage of the essential oils from many plants suggest potential new preventions and treatments. Like many alternative and integrative therapies, however, large clinical trials on the efficacy of essential oils in preventing or treating drug-resistant bacterial infections in humans are lacking. Some say a significant and collaborative effort by complementary and conventional medicine scientists, practitioners, and industry is needed if these botanical substances are to receive the attention that could prove crucial to the future of public health.

The average person has trillions of bacteria living upon and within his or her body—more than he or she has cells.1,2 Though most of these are nonpathogenic and even helpful, such as beneficial gut flora, some bacteria can cause harm in humans and animals with compromised immunities, ranging from minor skin infections to serious diseases like tuberculosis. Staphylococcus aureus, for example, resides on and within the bodies of about 30% of the population and causes almost 500,000 serious illnesses each year.3

When a bacterial infection or illness occurs, doctors must drain any infected superficial abscesses and give the patient antibiotics, which are designed to kill or slow the growth of specific bacteria.4 First used on a large-scale basis in healthcare settings in the 1940s, these infection-fighting drugs have drastically decreased infectious disease-related illness and death. But antibiotics’ widespread and sometimes inappropriate use has contributed to a situation as alarming as the sicknesses that these drugs were created to eliminate— drug resistance.

Drug-resistant bacteria withstand the intended effects of antibiotics by adapting themselves genetically and then sharing the new gene snippets with other bacteria, thus spreading the resistance ability.3 This allows them to cause more harm to living beings, increasing the risk of death, length of illness, and the opportunity for infection to spread to others. Almost every bacteria strain is stronger and less responsive to drugs than it once was; this rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria has become one of the world’s most urgent health concerns. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) both consider addressing antibiotic resistance as one of their top priorities.1,5

In hospitals, drug resistance is a major problem. “It is a very high priority issue in clinical settings, not only for patients, but for staff who may be exposed,” said Linda Halcón, RN, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s School for Nursing (oral communication, April 30, 2010). Additionally, drug-resistant bacterial infections outside of hospital settings are on the rise, which many experts say is especially concerning considering that these infections once occurred mainly in the sickest hospital patients.3 A 2009 article in the New England Journal of Medicine pointed out that it is now more difficult than ever to eradicate drug-resistant infections, and a global and collaborative effort from academia, industry, and government is direly needed.6

References

Antibiotic resistance questions & answers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Available at: www.cdc.gov/getsmart/antibiotic-use/anitbioticresistance-faqs.html#a Accessed April 12,

Krulwich R. Bacteria outnumber cells in human body. National Public Radio: Science news. July 1, 2006. Available at: www.npr.org/templates/story/story. php?storyId=5527426. Accessed April 12, 2010.

McKenna M. Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA. New York, NY: Free Press; 2010.

Understanding antimicrobial (drug) resistance. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases website. Available at: www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/antimicrobialresistance/understanding/Pages/default.aspx . Accessed April 12, 2010.

Antimicrobial resistance. World Health Organization website. Available at: www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs194/en/ . Accessed April 12, 2010.

Arias CA, Murray BE. Antibiotic-resistant bugs in the 21st century —a clinical super-challenge. N Engl J Med. 2009;360(5):439-443.

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