The Health Threat of Antibiotic Resistance

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According the World Health Organization (WHO), antibiotic resistance is one of the world’s greatest health threats to date (Haddox, 2013). In the article, The Health Threat of Antibiotic Resistance, Gail Haddox (2013) discusses the danger antibiotic resistance poses in today’s society and strategies to prevent the expansion of antibiotic resistance. In Europe alone, an estimated 25,000 deaths have been attributed to multi-resistant infections (Haddox, 2013). Common infections are now harder to treat due to the increased resistance to antibiotics across the world, in fact some are becoming untreatable. Antibiotics should be treated like oil, a non-renewable resource (Haddox, 2013).
There are four classifications of bacteria antibiotics must fight. Gram positive bacteria, includes staphylococci and streptococci. These bacteria cause infections on the skin and in the throat, lungs, and genital tract (Haddox, 2013). Gram negative bacteria cause of the most recognizable illnesses, including meningitis, gonorrhea, e-coli, salmonella, H. pylori, shingles, and influenza. Anaerobes are bacteria that thrive in oxygen deprived environments, like the mouth, gut and genital tract (Haddox, 2013). Atypical bacteria mycobacteria include bacteria such as tuberculosis and small intercellular organisms, such as chlamydia (Haddox, 2013).
There are many different types of antibiotics and each class of antibiotics work in different ways. The diversification of the actions of these antibiotics, is useful to target the many different types of bacteria. Penicillins and cephalosporins cause cell wall synthesis, weakening the bacteria and preventing cell division (Haddox, 2013). The quinolone antibiotics prevents bacteria from replicating by interfer...

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...for your office and your patients get the same answer from everyone there. This helps reduce antibiotic resistance by reducing the amount of unneeded antibiotics prescribed, while also maintaining patient satisfaction because the patient is already aware of your policy (Haddox, 2013). Explaining to the patient why antibiotics won’t work for them and also explaining what the side effects of the antibiotic would cause to them, specifically is important to help patient understand why an antibiotic is not need and also helps reduce antibiotic resistance. We are an instant gratification society and patients often view antibiotics as a quick fix, we must educate, educate, educate to protect our patients and the world as a whole against antibiotic resistance.

Works Cited

Haddox, G. (2013). The health threat of antibiotic resistance. Practice Nursing. 24(1), 39-43.

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