INTRODUCTION
“Antimicrobial resistance is resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial to which it was previously sensitive”. (Media centre, 2012)
Bacteria and viruses can become resistant and able to resist and able to resist antimicrobials such as cleaning agents, antibiotics and antivirals. These standard treatments for controlling bacteria and viruses become ineffective and allow infections to persist and spread. (Media centre, 2012)
WHAT ARE BACTERIA?
Bacteria have been in existence for a very long time. They are small cells that live in the environment they can be individual or as clumps. Bacteria like their environment to warm, dark and moist.
Bacteria have three different shapes Spiral (spirilla), Rod-shaped (Bacilli,bacillus) and Round (cocci).
http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/Ins/00-01/HS/le1.GIF
Bacteria reproduce by Binary fission and asexual reproduction.
Binary Fusion is where one bacterium divides into two bacterium.
Asexual Reproduction is where two organisms are needed to make one.
Reproduction
ENVIROMENTAL FACTORS SUSTINING LIVING ORGAMISIMS
There are several environmental factors that affect the growth of bacteria. These factors include nutrients, temperature, pH, pressure (osmotic and barometric) and the gaseous requirements. (Engelikirk and Burton, 2007)
Nutrients
Every living organism,, including bacteria requires nutrients to survive. Bacteria obtain their energy by breaking down the chemical bonds of these chemicals. Nutrients also provide sources of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, phosphorus, nitrogen, sulphur and other elements and trace elements essential for bacterial growth and survival. (Engelikirk and Burton, 2007)
Temperature
Microorganisms have a specific temperature at which they grow best, thi...
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...n. The main mechanisms of antimicrobial agents include the inhibition of cell wall synthesis, damage to cell membranes, inhibition of nucleic acid synthesis, inhibition of protein synthesis and inhibition of enzyme activity. Antimicrobial agents do not normally result in an allergic reaction in the host, but some do. They are normally stable in solid or liquid form, and they stay long in enough in tissue to be effective and normally kill the pathogens before they mutate and become resistant. (Engelkirk and Burton, 2007)
EXPERIMENT INVESTIGATING MICROBES AND MICROBIAL RESISTANCE
Different antimicrobial agents will have different degrees of effectiveness against microbes. An experiment can be designed to observe the effectiveness of different antimicrobial agents on a specific microbe – staphylococcus epidermidis – by performing a zone of exclusion experiment.
What do bacteria need to grow? For bacteria to grow the most typical thing that they like ate a warm and moist environment, but that is not all that they like. Bacteria also like and environment with a PH that is normal or close to a human PH and bacteria also like an oxygen rich environment. The places that could be common to find bacteria in a building are a keyboard, a water fountain, and restrooms. A keyboard is a common place for bacteria because it is being touched constantly with hands when people type and hands are warm, so bacteria like them. The water fountain is another place that is common for bacteria to grow because people's warm hands are touching it and also it has water, which causes it to be moist. The last place that bacteria will we commonly found in buildings are restrooms. The bacteria like restrooms because many people are in then and also there is a lot of water in them.
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.
Yang, J. (2009, August 21). Experts concerned about dangers of antibacterial products. The Globe and
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...
“Antibiotics" is the name given to the group of chemicals, particularly in medicine, that stop or inhibit the growth of, microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria, and parasites, or that kill the microorganism. They are, however, completely ineffective against viruses. There are two kinds of antibiotics, namely; bactericides, which interfere with the cell wall or contents of the bacteria, thereby killing it, and bacteriostatics, which prevent the bacteria from reproducing. They are used to treat bacterial infections in humans and animals. Bacteria are microorganisms consisting of single cells, and reproduce by mitosis. They usually live in colonies. Some bacteria and other microorganisms produce antibiotics to kill off other species, making more resources available for the organism making the chemicals. Ironically, it was this that led to the discovery of antibiotics in 1928, when Alexander Fleming noticed that the fungus Penicillium notatum, which had contaminated a sample of pathogenic bacteria, had killed the bacterial colonies in a petri dish.
Bacteria can be prevented from growing and/or living with the use of antibiotics. Antibiotics combat bacteria several ways by preventing the cell wall from developing properly, protein synthesis hindrance, interferes with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) production by impeding cell division, interfering with outer-membrane and plasma function, killing the cell (Aziz, 2013).
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.
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.
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.
In the documentary, Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria, reporter David Hoffman investigates this new untreatable infection along two individuals and a bacterial virus within a hospital. The first individual Hoffman investigates is Addie Rerecich of Arizona, she was treated for a staph infection with antibiotics, but other complications arise. Addie had a lung transplant, she was given several different antibiotics, but her body became pan-bacteria, non-resistance to the bacteria. Addie’s life was on the edge, she had to be on life support, and finally she received new lungs. The transplant helped Addie but it would take years before could go back to normal before the infection. The second individual is David Ricci; he had his leg amputated in India after a train accident. The antibiotic treatment he received became toxic to his body increasing problems. While in India, he underwent surgery almost every day because of infections he was developing. Back in Seattle, doctors found the NDM-1 resistance gene in his body; NDM-1 gene is resistance to almost all antib...
Antibiotic resistance can be caused by many things. The most common way in which bacterium build up a defence to antibiotics is by mutation. Mutation of a bacterium is when the DNA make up of the bacterium is altered, this in turn will change the shape of the antigen of a bacterium. Antibiotics will then not be able to inactivate the bacterium as they do not recognise it. One of the most common reasons as to why bacterium mutate is because many people do not finish their course of antibiotics. This is because they feel better so they stop taking the antibiotics, this means the bacterium only get exposed to the antibiotics enough to build up a resistance not enough to cause them to become inactive. Bacterium’s can also release special enzymes that are sent to attack the antibiotics. When doing this the enzymes will engulf the antibiotics which make the bacterium resistant to the treatment. Another way in which bacterium can build up a resistance is by changing how permeable the cell membrane is. In doing this the bacterium is limiting the amount of access points into it. By doing this the antibiotics will struggle to get into the bacterium, making it more resistant.
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.
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,
Microbial decomposition releases nutrients into the environment that are needed by other organisms. Microbes are also involved in the cycling of many other important compounds in — and between — ecosystems, including oxygen, carbon and nitrogen. Many microbes use the energy of sunlight to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, which we need to breathe. As they do this, they create new organic material — themselves — which are then eaten by other organisms. In this way, the cycling of nutrients and energy
Every organism requires a specific environment in order to survive. Bacteria alike, different types of bacteria are able to survive and reproduce in different types of environment. Some factors that affect the growth of bacteria include temperature, presence of certain gases and pH of the medium it is in.