Antibiotics

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Recommended: Use and overuse of antibiotics

ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE IS A BIG PROBLEM. HOW CAN WE REDUCE IT?

The Problem
Antibiotics have been vitally important for many years in treating infectious diseases in both, humans and animals. Their discovery was described as the miracle of the 20th century [1]. However the overuse of antibiotics caused the emergence of a new problem, antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotics completely changed medical care in the 1940s. It has also saved many lives over the years. The most important role of antibiotics is to treat a range of harmful illnesses caused by bacteria and throughout the early years, antibiotics developed quicker than bacteria developed resistance. Between the 1950s and 1960s scientists managed to discover many new antibiotics, but in the 1980s and 90s scientists were only able to improve existing ones. A report by The Standing Medical Advisory Committee states that micro-organisms are getting ahead and no more antibiotics are being discovered [2].
Bacteria usually live on and in all creatures. Not all bacteria are pathogenic (disease producing) in fact, many are harmless. Pathogenic bacteria can cause very serious infections. Before antibiotics were discovered, there were many deaths due to bacterial infections [1].
Penicillin was the first antibiotic discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming. He observed a set of culture dishes that were used to grow staphylococcus. He saw that a mould was growing around the staphylococcus this mould produced a bacteria-free ring around itself. Two other scientists, Florey and Chain, developed penicillin into an effective drug. Penicillin was tested for over 20 years on both humans and animals. In 1941 scientists noticed that even low doses of penicillin that were produced prevented many deadl...

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...ields of medicine, healthcare, internet technology and business. It also contains a peer reviewed editorial policy which allows it to be a reliable source.
YouTube [16] is a popular website known worldwide to many people around the world. The reliability of it depends on the video chosen and by whom it is hosted. The video I have chosen is hosted by Dr. Karl Klose. Dr.Klose has a PhD in microbiology from the University of California Berkeley and he performed postdoctoral studies in microbial Pathogenesis at Harvard Medical School. This means he is not any random person talking about the problem; in fact he knows about bacteria and he studied about it. Dr.Klose can be a bias scientist, which would mean that he is only talking about his point of view. By searching other sources I noticed that what he was saying was found in other websites, so this source is reliable.

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