Bacteria refer to a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms (microscopic organisms that lack a membrane bound nucleus). They are very abundant in nature. For example, according to Christian Nordqvist (2009), a gram of soil can contain up to forty million bacterial cells. Bacterial microorganisms can be found almost anywhere and can adjust extremely well to surrounding conditions.
Not all bacteria are harmful and even play an important role in the recycling of nutrients. By recycling nutrients bacteria become a valuable resource for the human body. Large colonies of bacteria called probiotics are contained in our large intestine, where they are responsible for producing vitamins that our bodies need to survive. Even though the majority of bacteria in the body are valuable and harmless there exists another type of bacteria that has quite the opposite role. These microbes are called pathogenic bacteria. Pathogenic bacteria are the type of bacteria responsible for infections and diseases. They invade a host, reproduce, and cause the infected host harm. According to the Washington State Department of Health, Tuberculosis is one of the most common fatal diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria. It is primarily treated with a course of strong antibiotics to fight the infection. Antibiotics inhibit the growth of bacteria, and are used to treat infections. They target not only pathogenic but also probiotic bacteria. Other common ways bacteria are neutralized are by the use of disinfectants, high heat, and ultraviolet irradiation.
When bacteria no longer respond to methods of neutralization they are said to be resistant. In modern times bacterial organisms have become resistant to treatments of antibiotics. It is not as if there is only o...
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... density has led to a large amount of bacterial infections. This is due to a lack of sanitation, waste management, and access to clean water. One other driving factor is that antibiotics are not regulated, and anyone with enough money can have access to them. The overuse of these drugs has led to the discovery of bacteria with resistance to some of the most powerful antibiotics in medical science. Luckily this resistance is currently found in only harmless bacteria that are harbored in an estimated two hundred million citizens. This does not put an end to the concern. Biologists fear that the harmless bacterial may transfer genes with more deadly pathogenic bacteria. The events after a gene transfer in the right conditions could be catastrophic. Picture a deadly disease with no know medical treatment in one of the heaviest populated areas. It could only end badly.
Head scientist of the antibiotic research center at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ohio, Gerry Wright, has studied the genes of 500 streptomyces strains, a type of bacteria, many of which had never previously been identified. All 500 strains held antibiotic-resistance genes and on average were resistant to 8 of 21 tested antibiotics (Sachs). With an average resistance rate as high as 67 percent in some of these streptomyces species, it is evident that antibiotic-resistance is a rising problem. Regardless of the countless studies proving antibiotic-resistance and articles about the subject, it is one the public knows little about. With such a history of antibiotic benefits, it is difficult to perceive the negative affects these drugs have. This is the main reason antibiotic studies are disregarded. If the large majority of the population continues to do little to avert antibiotic-resistance, bacteria will evolve beyond medical treatment. Actions must be taken by the community as a whole, and even further by the individual, to “reduce the spread of microbes and improve our defense against them” (Schmidt 272). Although antibiotic resistance is inevitable, humans are accelerating the natural defense of microbes through the overuse and misuse of 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.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are created when mutations in the pathogen's genetic code occurs, changing the protein in the bacteria that the antibiotics normally go after into a shape that the antibiotic can not recognize. The average bacteria divides every twenty minutes, so if a contaminated spot has one single bacteria in the morning, there could be trillions on that same spot at the end of the day. That means that when counting all the possibilities of mutations, the amount of mutated offspring that the bacteria might have formed during those replications could be as high as in the millions. Fortunately though, this does not happen so frequently that it is normally an issue. The amount of non-mutated bacteria vastly outnumbers the mutated ones and many of the mutations occurring in the bacteria usually have either a harmful effect, or not effect at all on its function. That means that the pathogen is still relatively less harmful than it c...
Stewart, Philip S, (2001) states that antibiotics are elements that are used to kill, or hinder the multiplication and growth of organisms. Especially, these antibiotics are meant to control fungi and bacteria. In this case, the antibiotics that are used in killing bacteria are referred to as bactericidal, and the ones that are used to prevent the multiplication process are bacteriostatic. The primary microbes for antibiotics are bacteria and fungi. These microorganisms are crucial to facilitate the secretion of substances that kill harmful bacteria which confer competition for the limited available nutrients (Southern, P. J., &Berg, 1981).
Acquired antimicrobial resistance generally can be ascribed to one of five mechanisms. These are production of drug-inactivating enzymes, modification of an existing target, acquisition of a target by-pass system, reduced cell permeability and drug removal from the cell. (Sefton) Also a bacterium that was once prone to an antibiotic can gain resistance through alt...
Bacteria are one cause of infectious disease. Bacteria are a single-cell microorganism that is very common in our bodies. Less than one percent of bacteria will actually make us sick. Some of the more common infections caused by bacteria include strep throat, salmonella, and e-coli. Strep throat is common in children and causes a painful sore throat. Strep is usually treated with antibiotic medication. Salmonella is spread on food that is contaminated by human or animal...
Bacteria are living organisms, and as such they have the ability to evolve by mutation and natural selection. This is the process by which random genetic mutations create individuals better suited to their environment, which then live to reproduce. The progeny of this individual will then have this mutation, and so a species evolves. One of the largest problems facing the medical profession today is that harmful, that ...
To get a clear insight of how pathogenic bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, one has to understand first how antibiotics work. Antibiotics are manufactured to interact with a specific target molecule produced by the bacteria. The target molecule performs protoplasm in the bacterium that is the driving cause of cellular growth and survival of the pathogen. Antibiotics hinder the growth and survival of the bacteria so that the bacteria can die. To inhibit the target’s function, an antibiotic must do three things. First, it has to reach the site of the target molecule. Second, the antibiotic has to persist at the site to have its effect. Third, the antibiotic needs to prevent the proper formation of cell walls and stop metabolic processes performed by the bacteria to prevent protein synthesis.
our everyday lives bacteria is constantly surrounding us, some of the bacterium that we encounter are beneficial to us but then there are the ones that are severely detrimental to our health. The way that they effect a persons body can differ from person to person. Many of the “microscopic foes” are very resilient and have a very fast reproduction rate. Not only do they reproduce quickly they sometimes seem to outsmart our immune system and not allow our bodies to fight the infection making it almost impossible to stop them. One thing that a lot if people rely on is the assistance of prescription drugs to get them better but even the drugs are not being effective and we can’t stop the pathogens from invading our personal places such as work, home, school, or anywhere. Even though modern medicine is advancing the pathogens could still get the get the best of us. The scary thing is we never know when the next pandemic or epidemic is going to arise. All it needs is some ordinary microbe to swap genes with a deadly germ to produce a “super pathogen” and it could happen to anyone, anywhere, as it did to Jeannie Brown who is from “our neck of the woods”.
Before I address this topic, it is essential that you know the following: an antibiotic is a medicine that inhibits the growth of, or destroys, microorganisms, antibiotic literally means “against life”; in this case, against microbes, and antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to withstand the effects of an antibiotic. Also, some drugs work against many organisms; these are called broad-spectrum antibiotics. Drugs effective against few organisms are called narrow-spectrum antibiotics.
Misuse or overuse of antibiotics plays a key role as to why bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics. With antibiotics easily available these days people will s...
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...
Antibiotics have been vitally important for many years in treating infectious diseases in both, humans and animals. Their discovery was described as the miracle of the 20th century [1]. However the overuse of antibiotics caused the emergence of a new problem, antibiotic resistance.
Resistance develops as a result of natural selection. Due to continuous exposure, the bacterial organism changes its genetic make up and these bacteria with mutations will pass the trait that helps then survive antibacterial mechanisms to their offspring which will eventually become a fully resistant generation. Antibiotic r...
The most effective way to combat pathogenic bacteria which invade the body is the use of antibiotics. Overexposure to antibiotics can easily lead to resistant strains of bacteria. Resistance is dangerous because bacteria can easily spread from person to person. Simple methods for preventing excessive bacterial spread are often overlooked. Not all preventative measures are even adequate. Doctors and patients often use antibiotics unnecessarily or incorrectly, leading to greater resistance. Antibiotics are used heavily in livestock and this excessive antibiotic use can create resistant bacteria and transfer them to humans. In order to reduce resistant bacteria,