Antibiotics is one of the most effective weapons that the human race has against bacterial infections, as antibiotic treatments can clear an infection within a three to eight day period. However, the constant use of antibiotics has allowed bacteria to mutate their DNA, making them more resistant against the drug. Many scientist theorize that this resistance pattern will lead to a superbug, a bacterium strain that is resistant to possibly all antibiotics. That kind of disease could be catastrophic and lead to a decline in population and progression. The growing issue of mutation made the idea of restricting medicine more favorable, but regulations against antibiotics could be a huge mistake. Many different companies relies on the leniency to …show more content…
It is estimated that 80% of antibiotics are sent to farms, which implies that the farms may be the source of the problem of antibiotic resistance, so there may be a need to address our current cultivation methods. The current methods of livestock cultivation place the animals into cramped living quarters which is notorious for developing diseases. Without antibiotics this method would fall apart. Sneeringer, Ph.D in economics and M.A in Demographics, predicts that the industry will drop in 1-3% productivity and increase market price by 1-3%. This seems small, however, several families are already struggling to find food. Meat products are used in several “cheap meals” and an increase in their price could leave individuals deprived of balanced nutrition. Sneeringer points out how a farmer would most likely have to hire a veterinarian to examine their livestock. Many small chain companies could suffer from this setback as the extra cost could put them out of business. With antibiotics, a farmer can save money on costly examinations. The destruction of several companies that cannot afford would reduce the supply. The drop in supply would be enough to shift the equilibrium on the supply-demand graph toward a higher price. Another problem with antibiotic restriction is the reduced budget pharmaceutical departments would have to develop and produce new antibiotics. The …show more content…
However, antibiotic restrictions could lower a doctor’s productivity as it may hinder the prescription process. Many doctors claim to never be 100% sure that their patients disease is either bacterial or viral, so they use antibiotics as a precaution (Dempsy). Applying and enforcing stricter regulations could result in more failed treatments, causing even more resistant bacteria. The new regulations may also cause a drop in their productivity as they would have to dedicate more time to more effectively diagnose all of their patients. More time with each patient means the longer the delay for another, that may lead to a small but subtle epidemic because of a doctor’s lack of ability to treat as many people as possible with satisfactory results. A doctor may also struggle with giving out stronger prescriptions, limiting a doctor’s ability to prescribe the medicine that they see as fit may interfere with the treatment and cause a failure. With more failing treatments and more resistant bacteria, the US may face a much larger demographic of sickly in the nation. A rise in more resistant bacteria is exactly what the regulations would have been meant to prevent, so a fault would make the restrictions redundant, but with large fallout. New regulations also means a drop in the amount distributed; granted the amount distributed should not be done for money, but it does play a role
...in the market. Diversified mid-sized family farms used to produce most of our meat, but now, only a few companies control the livestock industry. This has resulted in driving family farmers out of the market and replacing them with massive confined feeding operations that subject the animals to terrible living conditions that subject our food to contamination. Major food corporations are only concerned with minimizing overhead in order to deliver the consumer cheap food, regardless of the health implications.
A growing issue in the world today is the use of antibiotics and growth hormones in animal production industry. However, for over sixty years Americans have been exposed to hormones on a regular basic when they consume beef. (Organic Consumer Association) On average eighty percent of all feedlot cattle are given hormones to help them grow at an increased rate. (Communication Foundation) “In 1988 the European Union banned the use of all hormone growth promoters.” (Organic Consumer Association)
Although the pharmaceutical industry says that prescription medicines are as safe as they can possibly be, prescribed drugs have a high increase of risking a patient’s health. According to the law, drug makers seek Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for specific uses of their products and conduct trials to test their drugs safety and effectiveness in patients with specific conditions. The FDA demands that drug companies conduct rigorous clinical trials to prove a drugs safety and effectiveness in treating a particular disease. However, once the FDA approves a drug for one use, doctors can prescribe it for whatever they want. The FDA is considering loosening the monitoring of off-label prescriptions, but if anything, regulations should be tightened. Despite the practices of some medical personnel, the risk of serious medical complications demands that the FDA regulate and restrict off-label use of prescription drugs.
Many patients discontinue with their drug treatments due to them being highly priced.1 Regulated drug price control may benefit the public but not so much for the economy. The revenues and profits that companies make are used mainly to advertise new drug treatments and fund clinical research. Pharmaceutical companies spend only 1.3% of their revenues on basic research.1 This make no sense that only a small portion is used for research while the rest is spent on marketing. Price controlling may reduce marketing and advertising on new drugs, which may in return produce low revenues and profits for the company. Then we ask ourselves, what matters most the people or
Factory farming is a necessary component of our modern food production and supply system. In 2005, the U.S. produced 45.7 billion pounds of red meat. It efficiently produces and distributes huge quantities of food to feed the growing population of America. But the overfeeding of antibiotics in the U.S. meat industry has gotten to the extreme and it calls for a drastic change in order to prevent a potential public health crises.
Over the years humans have tried every possibility to overcome the health problems, spread of epidemics and infections, disease control and have worked towards a healthy society free of disease and health problems. They have succeeded to a great extent. The book “Good germs, bad germs” describes that though the life expectancy is now far more as it was in previous eras. Epidemic problems and infectious diseases are now getting lesser and lesser and humans are being treated successfully. The hygienic conditions have also been improved so as to ensure least growth of microbes, germs, parasites and bacteria. Antibiotics have been invented to address diseases and infections caused by bacteria and viruses. With all these substantial efforts the biologists, physicians and scientists have triggered another epidemic which is even more severe. They have killed those microbes and bacterial species which were human friendly and as a result of either their disruption or mutation, pathogenic bacteria have even become more active and resistant to treatments. This has led to increased ineffectiveness of antibiotic drugs, low immunity and various infections and inflammatory diseases. The chlorinated water for drinking and food processing along with excessive hygienic conditions indicates our fight against these bacteria and germs. Further, these antibiotics are even given to the livestock which becomes our food and as result many of their resistant germs end up in our digestive tract and other organs. Thus, the war against microbes through excessive cleanliness and use of antibiotics has resulted in antibiotic resistance among humans, which has become one of the prominent problems of medical science
With the low success rated private firms invest millions into several produces. When a drug does make it too market and is successful companies need to make-up money spent in development as well as the cost of drugs which did not make it to market. After all investments are taken care of there is still the need for profit. Some are concerned if the United States government implements control over prescription drug cost then private firms will be less motivated to invest in pharmaceuticals development of our fear they would not make their investment back. This would supply pharmaceutical companies with less finances for the research and development process. According to the information collected by Abbott and Vernon a drop in the price of pharmaceuticals would result in significant loss in investment of research and development (Abbott and Vernon). If drug cost were to drop 40-45% the amount of a drug to move from animal testing to human clinics would decrease by 50-60% (Abbott and Vernon). With such high risk and low reward pharmaceutical companies will likely stop or slow research on new technologies and compounds. In 1969 Canada imposed regulations on drug prices (Weidenbaum). After the regulations were imposed there was a decline in new drugs being created (Weidenbaum). This change in the pharmaceutical
If these problems could be eradicated it could save a lot of time and money for the farmers. The use of antibiotics and hormones before the livestock actually catches
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.
Many dangers of prescription drugs are a result of the lack of government influence and supervision in the pharmaceutical industry. It is a business that has free reign to run itself (Perkins). This creates many problems for American consumers. One of these problems is the outrageously high prices of pharmaceuticals. They are nearly impossible to afford for those without insurance, or with insurance that doesn’t cover prescription drugs. Studies performed by the Kaiser Family Foundation show that, “private employer-sponsored health-insurance premiums rose 13.9% this year, the most since 1989”, a trend that is expected to continue for many years to come (Coy). The rising costs of health insurance along with the already high prices of prescription drugs make pharmaceuticals difficult for many Americans to afford.
Generally in life, an overabundance of anything is thought of as a blessing.For instance, most people would say that there is no point where someone has too much money, or too much time; however, having and using too many antibiotics can be a problem.With the advent of antibiotics in 1929 Fleming warned that, "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."[1]Following with Fleming's words antibiotics need to be prescribed in a judicious fashion, not of one with a careless action, "one third of the 150 million outpatient prescriptions are unnecessary."[2]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 physician but also the patient.
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.
And, because food now comes at a low cost, it has become cheaper in quality and therefore potentially dangerous to the consumer’s health. These problems surrounding the ethics and the procedures of the instantaneous food system are left unchanged due to the obliviousness of the consumers and the dollar signs in the eyes of the government and big business. The problem begins with the mistreatment and exploitation of farmers. Farmers are essentially the backbone of the entire food system. Large-scale family farms account for 10% of all farms, but 75% of overall food production (CSS statistics).
Another negative effect currently happening is the number of people having adverse reactions to prescribed drugs to be 2.2 million per year. The number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections is 20 million per year. Patients using unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million per year. People exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million per y...
“An interesting byproduct of the newer solutions to medical dilemmas is the slowly growing resistance of antibiotics in bacteria (“Externalities”, 2016)”. The person who is affected by the negative externality concerning the use of antibiotics by others will see it as lowered utility: either subjective displeasure or potentially explicit costs, such as higher medical expenses in the future to treat infections that could have otherwise been treated easily at a lower cost (Ditah, 2011). In order to mitigate antibiotic resistance, healthcare workers should stop prescribing antibiotics unless it’s truly necessary. Additionally, the government should make more of an effort to tackle antibiotic resistance. People should also be educated about how overuse is