Prophylactic Antibiotics and the Vreation of Superbugs and Antibiotic Resistant Diseases

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Prophylactic antibiotics are “using antibiotics to guard against or prevent the spread or occurrence of disease or infection.” This is a paradoxical façade presented to us by the majority of the medical world, the cattle and animal agriculture industry, and the fortune 500 companies (Prophylaxis). Prophylactic antibiotics kill tens of thousands of people every year; approximately 23,000 people from last year alone had prophylactic antibiotic related deaths, and are suspected to significantly help the progression of superbugs (Threat Report 2013). Superbugs, or antibiotic-resistant bacteria, are one of the very likely results of prophylactic antibiotics, superbugs are a quiet crisis that people of the world should be aware of, considering it could and will affect us if we don’t do anything to prevent them (Dennis and Vastag). There are many cheap and easy ways to prevent the creation of superbugs and to reduce the number of disease and contagion related deaths every year across the world. The most effective way to go about doing this is forbidding the use of prophylactic antibiotics in animal feed and only using them amongst humans after a major surgery or places where there have been recent outbreaks of MRSA or other similar contagions to it. This could not only potentially prevent thousands of deaths every year, but also increase and maintain our antibiotics strength, integrity, and effectiveness against known threatening or harmful bacteria. There are many alternative simple solutions to using prophylactic antibiotics on that would save money and lives, and if we do not choose to employ them carry them out soon, the problem at hand will become virtually impossible to stop and rapidly become a critical threat to everyone on the p...

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