Antibiotics are medications that are used to treat bacterial or fungal infections (MNT, 2013) by either slowing down the metabolic processes in the bacterium, or killing it directly (Mobley, 2006). By slowing down the growth of bacteria, the body’s own immune system can take over for the medication, combatting the infection with its own defence. Antibiotics were first discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928 (MNT, 2013), when he found that fungal growth kills bacterial cells, but does not harm any other cells, such as human cells.
There are both advantages and disadvantages to taking antibiotics. Some advantages are; many antibiotics are capable of treating more than one infection successfully, and are also easy to administer (SuperPages, undated). There are also some disadvantages, such as; many antibiotics cause side-effects such as nausea and head-aches. They also destroy beneficial bacteria that the body needs, such as E. coli in the intestine, when destroying the infection. The biggest risk that comes with antibiotics is antibiotic resistance (Thompson, undated).
Antibiotic Resistance is the ability for a microorganism to resist the effects of an antibiotic, therefore becoming resistant to the medication, and continuing to multiply even in the presence of the antibiotic (APUA, 2013). Antibiotic Resistance occurs when bacteria mutate/evolve in a way that reduces or eliminates the way a drug affects it. This can be done in three ways; some bacteria have mechanisms do neutralise the antibiotic before it can do any harm. Others can effectively pump out the antibiotic before it begins to work, and some bacteria can change the sight of the antibiotic so that it does not affect the bacteria (RxList, undated).
One of the m...
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...munity, and the entire world, as infections spread, and if resistant bacteria continues to spread and mutate, there will no longer be any medication to fight infections that were previously curable. The Government is responsible for educating the people of South Africa, as at this point in time, Antibiotic Resistance is not a well-known medical issue. The aim of this Research Project is to determine whether parents from a privileged society know of the consequences of Antibiotic Resistance, and what the causes are. It will be clear then that if adults from a privileged society are not aware of the seriousness of Antibiotic Resistance, people from unprivileged societies will be even less aware. If this is the case, more pressure must be put on the government to educate the country, and help curb Antibiotic Resistance before there are no more antibiotics in the world.
Antibiotic resistance is one of the most important issues facing health care today, with wide reaching future implications if abuse continues. In the United States alone, antibiotic resistance is responsible for over two million illnesses and 23,000 deaths per year. Providers need to be judicious in the disbursement of these life saving pharmacological agents, while being informative of why antibiotics are not always the answer (Talkington, Cairns, Dolen, & Mothershed, 2014). In the case listed below, several issues need to be addressed including perception, knowledge deficit, and the caregiver’s role. This paper will focus on whether a prescription for antibiotics is appropriate and other courses of action that may be taken instead.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), describes antibiotic resistance is the ability of bacteria or other microbes to resist the effects of antibiotic treatment. () So instead of being destroyed by the medications, the bacteria survives and continues to reproduce, resultant in new communicable diseases that even more difficult to treat.
Infectious diseases are the disorders caused by organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasite who live both inside and outside our bodies and are normally helpful but can cause infectious diseases to the human (body) system under certain conditions. And for a disease to be infectious, there is what is called ‘’chain of infection’’ that takes place before. And this can be seen in the below diagram:
Throughout history disease has run rampant taking many lives with every passing day. Finding a cure or even just a tool in the battle has been the main focus of scientist throughout time. This focus is what brought us the discovery of antibiotics. Over the years antibiotics have been misused by patients, over prescribed by physicians and have led to resistant strains of bacteria.
The purpose of this paper is to review and summarize an article concerning antibiotic resistance. The article chosen was “The role of healthcare strategies in controlling antibiotic resistance” by Ann-Marie Aziz (2013) published in British Journal of Nursing, Vol. 22 Issue 18. This article discusses essential components to understand how antibiotics work; different strains of bacteria; what antibiotic resistance means and consists of; antibiotic resistance when pertaining to the production of foods. Along with strategies that can be utilized in health care to help reduce antibiotic resistance. For example, prescribing adjustments, sampling and testing; committees and education for staff and patients.
. Many doctors and patients are unaware that antibiotics are designed to treat bacterial infections, not viral infections (Antibiotic resistance, N.D.). Many bacteria within our bodies are not harmful at all, and some of them actually provide health benefits. The bacteria that are harmful are disease-causing bacteria, which generate sicknesses such as strep throat, the common cold, and ear infections (Get, 2013). Viruses are smaller than bacteria and require hosts, such as plants or animals, in order to proliferate (What, N.D.). Doctors play a vital role in administering antibiotics, for patients rely on their knowledge and expertise in order to receive proper medication for ailments throughout their lives. According to www.acponline.org, 190 million doses of antibiotics are administered every day. Among patients that do not reside in hospitals, doctors prescribe more than 133 million antibiotic programs every year. Of those 133 million programs, it is estimated that over 50 percent of them are unnecessarily prescribed because the doctor is prescribing them for viral infections such as common colds or simple coughs (Antibiotic resistance, N.D.). However, doctors are not the only ones to blame in regard to misuse of antibiotics because their patients are just as guilty when it comes to ignorance in respect to antibiotic usage. Many preventable factors have emerged because of irresponsibility of patients, including self-medication practices and the temptations of cheap, counterfeit drugs, all of which have aggravated drug resistance in the last 20 years (What, N.D.). Also, many patients are unaware of the dangers that can result from leaving medication behind because they don’t use it. It is extremely ill-advised to leave behind eve...
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.
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.
It kills bacteria by competing with it for food, The bacteria around the fungus are destroyed as penicillin is released. The penicillin kills the mold by stopping its cell walls from forming. This results in the cells bursting and dying (Ward, 50-51). During World War II, penicillin was used in place of surgery due to the lack of doctors. The drug obviated the need for many amputations because it could neutralize the bacteria that caused dead tissue responsible for limb removals (Conniff, 2013). A letter sent home from a soldier, Murphy, demonstrates an example of this. “At first they thought they would have the take his leg off… it was long before they really could treat him… But they started treating him with the new ‘wonder drug’ penicillin and it brought him around ok” (Higginbotham, 2001). In addition to eliminating amputations, penicillin made infections less painful to handle. Surgeons commonly treated wounds by draining them and leaving them open to heal. Infections were common and often deadly, recovery wound take months. However, after the distribution of penicillin, surgeons simply drained the wound, sprinkled penicillin powder, and stitched the wound close (Conniff, 2013). Thousands of soldiers who escaped death or amputation owed their well-being to the mass production of
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.
Resistance first appears in a population of bacteria through conditions that favor its selection. When an antibiotic attacks a group of bacteria, cells that are highly susceptible to the medicine will die. On the other hand, cells that have some resistance from the start or acquire it later may survive. At the same time, when antibiotics attack disease-causing bacteria, they also attack benign bacteria. This process eliminates drug-susceptible bacteria and favors bacteria that are resistant. Two things happen, populations of non-resistant and harmless bacteria are diminished, and because of the reduction of competition from these harmless and/or susceptible bacteria, resistant forms of disease-causing bacteria proliferate. As the resistant forms of the bacteria proliferate, there is more opportunity for genetic or chromosomal mutation (spontaneous DNA mutation (1)) or transformation, that comes about either through a form of microbial sex (1) or through the transference of plasmids, small circles of DNA (1), which allow bacteria to interchange genes with ease. Sometimes genes can also be t...
Before the advent of penicillin, in 1930, infant mortality was common. Without access to birth control and health education, poor couples often bore more children than they could adequately feed. In contrast, modern families are far more educated about birth control, sanitation methods, and have access to health care and antibiotics, even if it is only acquired at the emergency room. With better living conditions and a greater sense of personal security, the population exploded, and the availability of fast food has permitted people to consume high-calorie, nutrition-poor food to the exclusion of almost anything else. But this is only the beginning of this systemic issue.
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.
The discovery of antibiotics is attributed to Alexander Fleming who discovered the first antibiotic to be commercially used (Penicillin) in approximately 1928. An antibiotic, also known as an antimicrobial, is a medication that is taken in order to either destroy or slow the growth rate of bacteria. Antibiotics are integral to the success of many medical practises, such as; surgical procedures, organ transplants, the treatment of cancer and the treatment of the critically ill. (Ramanan Laxminarayan, 2013)
Infection control, a term that describes procedures taken to reduce the spread of infection. The dental office is a place where many people are treated including patients with infectious disease such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and many other highly contagious diseases. It is imperative that in any dental office setting the prevention of the spreading microorganisms from patient to patient, patient to staff, or staff to patient is done in high precaution. Infection control has two main objectives; to protect the patients from harmful pathogens as well as dental team members. Infections can cause or add pain, deteriorate a persons health, and in worst cases even result in death. In order to understand the infection control in a dental facility, you must understand the standard precautions required by organizations that regulate or recommend infection control, the kinds of preventive measures taken, as well as when these measures should be taken.