When Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, the world exploded with advancements in medicine, but as advancements go forward, so do reactions backfire. The strains that were once thought easily curable with a few antibiotic pills are fighting back. As antibiotic-resistant bacteria are becoming more and more prevalent due to modern medicinal practices, including overuse and unnecessary intake, factors exist which can contribute to halting this increase. Phage therapy should be implemented into Western healthcare as a replacement or safety net for antibiotics because such techniques have the potential to diminish antibiotic-resistance.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that over 2 million United States citizens are infected
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The intended audience was National History Day judges, but may include those who are trying to learn the history of antibiotics. This is identifiable from other sources by being a compilation of historical data as well as primary facts. This contributed as a secondary source from which readers can understand how antibiotics were discovered, rather than how they influenced medicine.
Reuters. "Phages Offers Virus Alternative to Antibiotics." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 29 Sept. 2016. Web. 05 Apr. 2017. Reuters News is an international news agency currently headquartered in London, England, and covers biotechnology as one of its subsections. The intended audience includes every news reader or viewer, but is used mostly in European countries. This particular article constitutes for a primary use of phage therapy to treat a boy with Netherton Syndrome with a Staph infection and depressed immune system. This is a video source, and depicts the story of the boy’s treatment and how he survived his infection specifically due to phage therapy.
Sharp, Richard. "Bacteriophages: Biology and History." Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 19 June 2001. Web. 11 Apr.
...nd make people aware that it is more common than people realize and that a rather large part of America has the illness, whether they know it or not. This paper also discussed how the virus, could target certain individuals more easily than others based on the genetic makeup of an individual and families.
Years later other scientists were also intrigued by the possibilities of penicillin and produced enough penicillin to prove that it was a useable antibiotic. The scientists from Great Britain were developing all of this during World War II, and unfortunately funding for their drug was unavailable due to the war. They decided to bring their concepts to the United States, and once enough was made, it was eventually used, to treat wounded soldiers during World War I.
The natural components of antibiotics have been used as local remedies long before humans understood the reasons why these sometimes-radical treatments worked. Penicillin became the first manufactured antibiotic after physician Alexander Fleming published articles regarding this bacteria-disabling mold in 1928. Come 1932, penicillin was commonly used to treat infected war injuries, saving the lives of unnumbered soldiers (Lewis). Since then, penicillin has b...
The spread of aids threatens our population daily. Lives lost to it number over 12 million, including 2 mil...
Antibiotics were no longer working so he thought bacteriophage could be the next solution. Unlike antibiotics they replicate, mutate and evolve. Petri dishes were used to grow “lawns” of MRSA from nasal swabs, athletic facilities and hospitals by Hatch and about a dozen other researchers. After a 3-year study was done they discovered 12 bacteriophages with MRSA killing potential, some of which had decontaminated more than 90 percent of MRSA-infected glass and fabrics. The bacteriophage even penetrated the biofilm, something that antibiotics can't do. I think its interesting that bacteriophages were discovered around 100 years ago, but quickly forgotten about in the U.S and other parts of the world after antibiotics were found due to the fact that they were easier to make. But now they are coming back as something to study and research and have lots of potential advantages that can arise if more research is conducted. Although this study did discover 12 bacteriophages that have the ability to rule out MRSA, much more research must be conducted before it could be used to treat
as 3.5 million people are believed to be carriers which means that they have the
World War 2 gave penicillin a chance to show the world that this was indeed a miracle drug by showing its worth, and it proved worthy. For example, “ Penicillin was so effective that production increased from 400 million units in early 1943 to more than 650 billion units per month by the end of the war in 1945” ( “Penicillin: World War 2” 1). Since the production of penicillin increased this showed the effectiveness of penicillin which in returned showed that penicillin could be used worldwide making a global impact. Using penicillin made it uncomplicated for doctors to treat their patients more swiftly. In addition, “ By attacking open wounds with antiseptics, army doctors were able to revitalize troops more quickly” ( “Penicillin: World War 2” 2). Because they were able to revitalize troops more swiftly, the soldiers would be able to get back into combat faster and waste less time than if there was no penicillin. Thanks to penicillin the death rate has incredibly decreased for bacterial infections. Furthermore, “In the war penicillin proved its mettle. “Throughout history, the major killer in wars had been infection rather than battle injuries. In World War 1, the death rate from bacterial pneumonia was 18 percent; in World War II, it fell, to less than 1 percent” ( World First Antibiotic” 2). This quote shows that penicillin is truly effective and that it can be used to assist additional people around the
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has presented many problems in our society, including an increased chance of fatality due to infections that could have otherwise been treated with success. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, but overexposure to these drugs give the bacteria more opportunities to mutate, forming resistant strains. Through natural selection, those few mutated bacteria are able to survive treatments of antibiotics and then pass on their genes to other bacterial cells through lateral gene transfer (Zhaxybayeva, 2011). Once resistance builds in one patient, it is possible for the strain to be transmitted to others through improper hygiene and failure to isolate patients in hospitals.
Penicillin, derived from the mold Penicillium, is the first antibiotic to successfully treat bacterial infections on humans. It was accidentally discovered by scientist, Alexander Fleming. While Fleming was growing Staphylococcus, a serious and often deadly infection, in a dish, he noticed the bacteria had stopped growing after a mold found its way
In the last decade, the number of prescriptions for antibiotics has increases. Even though, antibiotics are helpful, an excess amount of antibiotics can be dangerous. Quite often antibiotics are wrongly prescribed to cure viruses when they are meant to target bacteria. Antibiotics are a type of medicine that is prone to kill microorganisms, or bacteria. By examining the PBS documentary Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria and the article “U.S. government taps GlaxoSmithKline for New Antibiotics” by Ben Hirschler as well as a few other articles can help depict the problem that is of doctors prescribing antibiotics wrongly or excessively, which can led to becoming harmful to the body.
Since antibiotics, such as penicillin, became widely available in the 1940s, they have been called miracle drugs. They have been able to eliminate bacteria without significantly harming the other cells of the host. Now with each passing year, bacteria that are immune to antibiotics have become more and more common. This turn of events presents us with an alarming problem. Strains of bacteria that are resistant to all prescribed antibiotics are beginning to appear. As a result, diseases such as tuberculosis and penicillin-resistant gonorrhea are reemerging on a worldwide scale (1).
Discovery and Development of Penicillin. (2014, April 4). Retrieved from American Chemical Society International Historic Chemical Landmarks: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/flemingpenicillin.html
Thesis: With the advent of antibiotics in 1929 Fleming said, "The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops.Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant."With the overuse of antibiotics today we have seen this very idea come to be.Over usage is caused most prevalently by a lack of education on the part of the patient.Thus stated, the way to overcome such a circumstance is to educate, not only the patient but also the physician.
...gests that the world is on the brink of a post-antibiotic era as the numbers of resistant bacteria (superbugs) proliferate, and there is an increase in the number of people dying from previously treatable infections. Todar, (n.d) states, “Society could be faced with previously treatable diseases that have become again untreatable, as in the days before antibiotics were developed.”
Viruses are a big problem all across the world in the last few decades. The virus Ebola has caught the attention of many people in the public and government. Viruses, like Ebola, that kill huge amounts of people is a major threat to the entire world. The only way to find a cure for Ebola is through our use of science and technology. Ebola has just been noticed in the last few months, but Ebola has been around for years. People didn’t know or didn’t care about it as it was in Africa. Now that is has come to the United States of America, it has become a worldwide issue.