Maria Àngels Calvo participates in the act that the Historical Archive of Health Sciences of the Association of Physicians of Barcelona celebrates in Montserrat

Maria Àngels Calvo, full academician and vice-president of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED) and at the same time full academician of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia, the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Catalonia, the Academy of Veterinary Sciences of Catalonia and the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain, participated on April 6 in the 17th Academic Act that the Historical Archive of Health Sciences of the Association of Physicians of Barcelona held in Montserrat with the conference “La resistencia a los antibióticos desde la medicina y la veterinaria” (Resistance to antibiotics from medicine and veterinary). The session was held in the Hall of the Façade of the Abbey of Montserrat under the presidency of the abbot, Josep Maria Soler; the president of the Association of Physicians of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Padrós, and the director of the Archive, Lluís Gerrero.

Calvo focused her intervention on how to stop the spread of infections caused by resistant microorganisms to antibiotics. “It is a serious public health problem that must be considered from the concept in a world, a single health. Both professionals in the field of health and those of food must be involved, since the problem derives the systematic use of antibiotics as animal growth promoters. If we do not have effective antimicrobials to prevent and treat infections, interventions such as organ transplants or major surgery, chemotherapy or the treatment of diabetes can become high-risk procedures”, said the academician.

“Resistance to antibiotics is manifested, generally, as a consequence of genetic modifications in microorganisms -Calvo continued-. But the process of acquiring resistance can be accelerated by an improper use or abuse of antibiotics”. As examples of this misuse, both in man and in animals, he highlighted the incorrect administration as presumable treatment of viral infections, as well as its use as growth promoters in animal feed. “The microorganisms resistant to antibiotics are present in people, in animals and in the environment and can be transmitted from person to person or from animals to people, as well as in the opposite direction”, said the speaker.

History Archive of Health Sciences was inaugurated in 1994 coinciding with the centenary of the Association of Physicians of Barcelona with some 400 books owned by Simeón Selga. Nowadays it has become a collective library of the professional past, with volumes dating from the 17th century to the beginning of the 21st century. The fund now has about 35,000 volumes of which more than 20,000 are catalogued. This library also keeps some magazines, photographs and diverse documents, and it has been built from donations from relatives of deceased health workers, from deliveries of those who have no place to keep them, or from those who consider them obsolete for their work, always keeping the name of the professional who has given it.