For many years we have become increasingly dependant on antibiotics to fight off the bacteria that cause diseases in our bodies. Many of the diseases these bacteria and microbes cause are infectious. For these reasons, it has been noticed that bacteria and other microbes are becoming increasingly resistant to the antibiotics prescribed to sick people. Many doctors prescribe antibiotics for common illnesses, yet other medicines such as home remedies and homeopathy could be used instead. As a result, we are using antibiotics too often, as many sources claim we should only be using them once every three years.”Bacteria have shown a remarkable ability to endure and adapt to their environment including the development of different mechanisms of resistance to most old and new antimicrobial agents”. Because of the frequent prescription, the bacteria and microbes that cause these illnesses are exposed to the same type of antibiotics frequently, thus they are able to adapt and build up resilience against these antibiotics. “Bacteria have developed resistance to all different classes of antibiotics discovered to date” . This is a major problem as we rely so heavily on antibiotics to treat serious illnesses that we are running out of options to treat them with. The prescribing of antibiotics for illnesses that are not life-threatening are now resulting in fewer solutions to cure people affected by diseases that can be fatal.
Streptococcus pneumoniae ( responsible for causing strep throat and other throat infections ) are spreading throughout communities at an alarming rate, and antibiotics used to treat Streptococcus pneumoniae are becoming increasingly ineffective as a result of the antibiotic being prescribed to so many people so ofte...
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... animals can become infected as the meat is infested with pathogens. There is furious debate over the issue of overuse of antibiotics to treat animals.
I believe that to solve this crisis of increasingly resistant bacteria, we all have to take initiative. Of course antibiotics should not be prescribed so freely, but i think that it all falls down to a matter of education. If people were educated on this matter, they would realise that they should not be taking antibiotics more than once every three years and they would ask their medical practitioner for alternative ways of dealing with their illness. Better diets and a more active lifestyle will help a person keep healthy and strong as well. I believe that more research should be done into bacteria and that we should devote much of our research into finding alternative ways in which we can cure illnesses.
Simple infections are no longer death sentences, however, immunities to these antibiotics are appearing. The use of antibiotics save lives by crippling the ability of bacteria to damage the human body, and antibodies act as a sidekick to the immune system when fighting off life-threatening illnesses. In “The Life of a Peasant”, William Stearns Davis (1922) focuses on what life would be like for the lowest tier of people in a feudalistic state, and he concluded that often in a world without antibiotics, people lose their lives to easily preventable medical conditions, regardless of whether they are a king or a peasant. Antibiotics are used to fight infections that could otherwise prove deadly. In a time before antibiotics, life was much more difficult for all involved. Before antibiotics were used, many died of simple cuts or scratches that later got infected. If action is not taken, superbugs could grow immune to all of the antibiotics we possess. Superbugs are becoming immune to the ways we fight them, which forecasts a world without the ability to fight these superbugs. In the article “Superbugs Causing Infections at a Tertiary Care Hospital and the Return of Pre-Antibiotic Era!” Kalyan Rajkumar (2016), associate professor of microbiology at King George 's Medical University, as well as his research team, discusses the prevalence of a strain of E. coli that is mostly immune to the majority of current
In accordance with the World Health Organization, pneumonia still remains one of the main killers of children under the age of five, taking more than 1.1 million lives of boys and girls annually (WHO Pneumonia factsheet, 2013). Pneumonia is more prevalent in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. It is well known that pneumonia is a disease of respiratory system that affects the alveoli, which are the constituent part of the lungs. Normally alveoli fill with air during the breath of a healthy person, while the one with pneumonia has alveoli, which are filled with fluid and pus; hence the breathing process is painful and limits the oxygen consumption by organism. Pneumonia can be caused by several infectious agents, such as bacteria, fungi and viruses. The most common are Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), Pneumocystis jiroveci. However, significant proportion of all pneumonia is caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. In fact, the diseases caused by S. pneumoniae also include sinusitis, meningitis, otitis and some other problems, including septic arthritis, endocarditis and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (WHO Pneumonia factsheet, 2013). The main aim of this paper is to familiarize the reader with Streptococcus pneumoniae and one particular disease that it causes - pneumonia.
Hats off to bacteria! This article summarizes that bacteria are good for our body and help us function a lot better. Bacteria live in our guts, in our mouths, and on our skin. Overuse of antibiotics has disturbed the bacterial ecosystem, possibly so much that it is irreversible. In 1999 Lawrence Brandt a professor of medicine and surgery at the Albert Einstein College of medicine had success when trying to help a patient combat diarrhea induced by clostridium difficile. A patient developed diarrhea after taking a course of antibiotics for sinusitis; nothing could shake her C.difficile infection. Brandt reasoned the initial antibiotic treatment had killed gut bacteria that promote digestive health; not knowing which strain to replace, he transplanted stool form her husband. That night she reported marked improvement- for the first time in six months. This procedure has helped patients, but hopefully in the future doctors will be able to administer the particular strain of bacteria that is needed. 99% of the bacteria we harbor are resistant to culture in the lab. It was this impossible to study bacteria until the last decade or so, when DNA sequencing techniques allowed researchers to obtain gene sequences from as little as one bacterial cell. With this researchers found that bacteria cells in our bodies outnumber our human cells. Bacterial exposure throughout our lifetime is needed for our wellbeing, thinking, and functioning, contributing to conditions such as diabetes, obesity, allergies, asthma, and atherosclerosis, as well as to anxiety and mood and cognition disorders. These conditions have become more prominent because of our obsession with sanitation has eliminated the exposure to bacteria humans used to routinely get throu...
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a Gram-positive and fast-growing bacteria which inhabit upper respiratory tract in humans. Moreover, it is an aerotolerant anaerobe and usually causes respiratory diseases including pneumonia, otitis media, meningitis, peritonitis, paranasal sinusitis, septic arthritis, and osteomyelitis (Todar, 2003). According to Tettelin et al., more than 3 million of children die from meningitis or pneumonia worldwide (2001). S.pneumoniae has an enzyme known as autolysin that is responsible for disintegration and disruption of epithelial cells. Furthermore, S.pneumoniae has many essential virulence factors like capsule which is made up of polysaccharides that avoids complement C3b opsonization of cells by phagocytes. Many vaccines contain different capsular antigens which were isolated from various strains (Todar, 2003). There are plenty of S.pneumoniae strains that developed resistance to most popular antibiotics like macrolides, fluoroquinolones, and penicillin since 1990 (Tettelin et al., 2001). Antibiotic resistance was developed by the gene mutation and selection processes that, as a consequence, lead to the formation of penicillin-binding proteins, etc. (Todar, 2003).
The common cold is one of the most prevalent illnesses worldwide. It is caused by a virus that inflames the membranes in the lining of the nose and throat, colds can be the result of more than 200 different viruses [10].The antibiotics don't work against any infections caused by viruses [11]. They are a powerful medicines that fight bacterial infections [12]. Antibiotics were first used to treat serious infections in the 1940s. Since then, antibiotics have saved millions of lives and transformed modern medicine. During the last 70 years, however, bacteria have shown the ability to become resistant to every antibiotic that has been developed [13].Taking unnecessary antibiotic can be dangerous to the health and can increase the risk of antibiotic resistance [14]. World Health Organization (WHO) define the Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as the resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial agent to which it was originally sensitive. [3] Antibiotics were prescribed in 68% of acute respiratory tract visits and of those, 80% were unnecessary according to disease control center (CDC) guidelines. $1.1 billion is spent annually on unnecessary adult upper respiratory infection antibiotic prescriptions. When antibiotics fail to work, the consequences are longer-lasting illnesses, more doctor visits or extended hospital stays, and the need for more expensive and toxic medications. Some resistant infections can even cause death [2].The judicious prescription of antibiotics has become a central focus of professional and public health measures to combat the spread of resistant organisms. [15]
Resistance arises from mutations that are not under the control of humans, but the evolution of bacteria has been sped along by the overexposure of antibiotics to both people and animals. The number of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria in an area is closely related to the frequency that antibiotics that are prescribed (Todar, 2012). Patients often unnecessarily demand antibiotics to treat common colds or simple illnesses that are not caused by bacteria. Instead, these infections are caused by viruses which, unlike bacteria, are unaffected by antibiotics. Incorrect diagnosis can also lead patients to using unnecessary antibiotics, which can sometimes be even more dangerous than otherwise left untreated. Besides the fact that antibiotics kill off beneficial bacteria in the intestines, misuse of antibiotics provides an opportunity ...
However, health concerned organizations want to ban the use of these products due to the increasing fears that they can cause harm to the consumers. For over 50 years, antibiotics have been added to the food of animals such as poultry, cattle and pigs. The main purpose for doing so is to lower the risk of disease in animals. Farm animals are housed together in overcrowded areas, which are very dirty. The hygiene level can get to such a poor state that they are often in contact with their own excreta as well as excreta of the other animals they are housed with and because of tight single air space they share, the likelihood of catching diseases from one another is further increased and very often a whole heard can be infected at one time.
S. pyogenes is a bacterium that permeates our society. Today it is commonly known as the cause of “Strep. throat,” or Streptococcal pharyngitis. Modern medicine has caused the eradication of most of its advanced infections, while this most common form of infection still thrives. It is very contagious, and pyogenes travels quickly through places where bacteria flourish, such as schools and health institutions. The body cannot fight this bacterium very well without help, and S. pyogenes was a common cause of death until the introduction of antibiotics in the twentieth century. It has a number of ways to subdue the immune system, but it is almost completely vulnerable to penicillin, even after decades of exposure. While generally no more than a nuisance, this bacterium continues to be an interesting topic of discussion. (6,3,2)
... perspective must go beyond curing bacterial disease right now (3). This understanding must extend to the need to preserve microbial communities that are susceptible to antibiotics, so they will always be able to out-compete resistant strains.
During the pre antibiotic era in the early 1900’s the leading causes of death were tuberculosis, enteritis, and multiple strains of streptococcus, all bacterial infections. Equally terrifying was that some of these simple infections were 80% fatal if contracted. However, a breakthrough happened when Alexander fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, even though it wasn’t mass produced until 1939. Thus, the antibiotic era emerged quickly reaching its golden age (1941-1962) where they had 14 novel classes. Most were very optimistic, saying infections have basically been wiped out in America, but some people had their doubts. Flemming even predicted bacteria will develop resistance, and resistance plasmids were discovered in the 1940s but it didn’t seem to matter. After the 1960’s no new classes were being made, only little changes to the 4 remaining classes. It wasn’t until 1999 when a new class was made, so were not very fast at making antibiotics. In summary, the future for antibiotics seemed bright and limitless. However, bacterial evolutionary adaptation always seems to get the better of us in the
Meat cultivation uses more land, water and resources to house, transport, and slaughter animals and their grain and food than it would cost to fund in vitro meat studies. In April 2008 the In Vitro Consortium first met at the Norwegian Food Research Institute. The consortium is “an international alliance of environmentally concerned scientists striving to facilitate the establishment of a large scale process industry for the production of muscle tissue for human consumption through concerted R&D efforts and attraction of funding fuels to these efforts. ”Meat in both its production and its consumption has a number of destructive effects on not only the environment and humans but also live stock. Some of these effects are antibiotic resistant bacteria due to the overuse of antibiotics in livestock, meat-borne pathogens (e. coli), and diseases associated with diets rich in animal fats (diabetes).
Antibiotics are used worldwide and although their uses have helped many people, it doesn't come without risk. The use of antibiotics treats people and animals alike to cure infection and are easily excusable through physicians. However in recent years, since antibiotics are used so universally, antibiotic- resistant strains have become a growing problem. This suggest that the bacteria is adapting to the antibiotics and through natural selection, the antibiotic- resistant bacteria have grown in numbers. The scientific community worries about future treatment of diseases if the bacteria continues to adapt. For example tuberculosis which hasn't been a problem in some time, has started to reoccur as a much harder to treat strain. Antibiotics are the go to method of treating infection but we need to be careful when we are using them.
It is estimated that over one-half of the antibiotics in the U.S. are used in food animal production. The overuse of antimicrobials in food animal production is an under-appreciated problem. In both human and veterinary medicine, the risk of developing resistance rises each time bacteria are exposed to antimicrobials. Resistance opens the door to treatment failure for even the most common pathogens and leads to an increasing number of infections. The mounting evidence of the relationship between antimicrobial use in animal husbandry and the increase in bacterial resistance in humans has prompted several reviews of agricultural practices by scientific authorities in a number of countries, including the US.
What if there were no treatment for strep throat? Or pneumonia? Or sinus infections? It is hard to imagine life without medicine for these illnesses. But what if the antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections such as strep throat and pneumonia stopped working? What if the bacteria were stronger than the antibiotics? The threat of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections is an increasing concern for healthcare providers, and it is important to reduce the misuse and overuse of antibiotics to maintain control of bacterial diseases.
In April 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the problem of antibiotic resistance “is so serious that it threatens the achievements of modern medicine...A post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries can kill, is a very real possibility for the 21st century” (Organization & Asia, 2015). Many very common, easily treated bacterial pathogens are already known to have some level of antibiotic resistance. These include "Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and species of enterobacter, salmonella, and shigella" (Nathan & Cars,