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Risks of continual overuse of antibiotics
The effect of different antibiotics on bacteria results
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Around every corner in this life lurks some kind of danger. Some are hidden and some are exposed. Others are threatening to our safety, while some threaten our livelihood. The average person in today’s world is vulnerable to many threats, but humanity has come to be a resilient species. We are not indestructible however, with the death toll at a staggering amount each day for various reasons, especially in terms of health. Out of the many illnesses that have claimed many lives over the years, like cancer and heart disease, the focus will be on a much more daunting subject.
Modern medicine claims to have their foot on the throat of the vast majority of bacterial infections, boasting a large arsenal of treatments for the infected patient. Antibiotic drugs have been the answer for the past century in combating once threatening bacterial illnesses. According to Dr. Stuart Levy, “an antibiotic, as we now know it, is a natural substance made by one microorganism that inhibits [or kills] growth of another microorganism” (33). When Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, the world between the world wars thought they were forever saved with the newfound defense against formerly deadly bacteria. The bliss would not last long however, because new strains of bacteria were forming against penicillin and other drugs that scientists and microbiologists were developing since the people consumed the newfound drugs feverishly. Doctors and people ignorantly and ineffectively use these drugs against viral infections and bacterial infections that cannot be treated. Today, with our most diverse cache of antibiotic drugs, it seems like bacteria is growing stronger against anything we throw at it. Why? Due to the overuse of antibiotics and ...
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...n Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance. N.p., 03 Apr. 2012. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
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"Antimicrobial Resistance Posing Growing Health Threat." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 07 Apr. 2011. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
"Antimicrobial Resistance." WHO. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
Levy, Stuart B. The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Pub., 2002. Print.
Spellberg, Brad. Rising Plague: The Global Threat from Deadly Bacteria and Our Dwindling Arsenal to Fight Them. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2009. Print.
Thompson, Kimberly, and Debra Fulghum. Overkill. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2002. Print.
Roos, Anna Marie E. "Plague, Early History." Infectious Diseases: In Context. Ed. Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2008. 627-634. In Context Series. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
"Plague." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13 June 2012. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.
Plagues and Peoples. By William H. McNeill. (New York: Anchor Books: A division of Random House, Inc., 1976 and Preface 1998. Pp. 7 + 365. Acknowledgements, preface, map, appendix, notes, index.)
Lapaire, Pierre J. "The Plague: Overview." Reference Guide to World Literature. Ed. Lesley Henderson. 2nd ed. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.
The most intriguing article within the stimulating documents was William Stearns Davis’ “The Life of a Peasant” (Davis, 1922). Which offers an unaltered view of the lives of peasants in the middle ages. In his article, Davis introduces the idea of deadly bacteria through a description of the Black Plague, a disease caused by the bacterium named Yersinia Pestis. The Black Plague devastated the kingdoms of the middle ages. Yersinia Pestis was able to do this as at the time of its major outbreak, poor hygiene was commonplace, and antibiotics were non-existent. The question that stood out from the article was “To what extent, would it be possible for superbugs to create an environment today absent of effective antibiotics?”
In our community right now, medical researchers are testing antibiotics that may have chemicals to disable the resistance of this organism. But while research continues, it is vital to be aware of how these deadly germs spread and what we can do to prevent them.
In several cases, Nobel Peace Prizes were given to the scientists who contributed to public health through antibiotics. The importance and significance of antibiotics in our lives are emphasized through those beginning statements made by the author. Because of the list of achievements that antibiotics have brought to people throughout history, I, as a reader, was left impressed by the topic. Starting the article in such a positive manner gives the reader a good attitude and an open mind when reading the rest of the article which is more controversial. The tone that Carroll used throughout the article left me as a reader impressed when I finished reading. Learning that before antibiotics, the top cause of death in the United States was germs made me realize the importance of antibiotics to our country when they are used properly. Although I understand that antibiotic resistance is real, I have never had a first-hand experience with an antibiotic not being able to fight a bacterial infection. In my mind, Carroll purposefully gave several examples of the importance of antibiotics to our country to emphasize that the rest of the article was not against
Mary Lowth, “Plagues, pestilence and pandemics: Deadly diseases and humanity,” Practice Nurse, 16, (2012): 42-46
“The World Health Organization projects that as drug effectiveness decreases and antibiotic resistance increases, public education becomes more and more crucial” (476) Antibiotics were discovered in 1940 and since have been abused and misused. Between bad practices and lack of proper education antibiotic resistance has been allowed to occur. The only way to combat bacterial infections is with strong patient education and following the correct schedule in taking antibiotics.
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.
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.
Bibliography:.. References 1) Lewis, Ricki, “The Rise of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections”. Food and Drug Administration Publications. http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/795_antibio.html September, 1995. 2) Levy, S., Bittner, M., and Salyers, A. Ask the Experts about “Ask the Experts”.
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.
There are many medical professionals who believe that the rise of antibiotic resistance is a result of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. Dr. Jim Wilde, a paediatric emergency medicine physician at the Medical College of Georgia believes that the medical profession is losing the war against resistance...
“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