Antibiotics. They are one of the greatest medical advancements in history. They are the savior of those suffering from pneumonia, tuberculosis, enteritis, and much more. There is no mistaking that these drugs are necessary to treat many diseases; however, it seems as though every person who walks into a doctor’s office comes out carrying a little slip of paper with a prescription on it, and this is where the problem lies. Antibiotic abuse leads to patients feeling worse than they did originally, bacteria becoming more resistant, and increased costs. It must be stopped.
Antibiotics may seem like the cure for many illnesses, but unnecessary drug prescriptions actually do more harm than good. Taking antibiotics when not needed may make users feel worse. Many side effects such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, thrush, allergies and even life-threatening bowel inflammation can occur when using antibiotics (NPS, 2012, para. 2-4). If people misuse antibiotics and take them for viral infections, they are not doing anything to help their condition, but they may be putting themselves at risk for increased discomfort and potentially life-threatening side effects. Antibiotics also cause the healthy bacteria in your body to diminish. Dr. Martin Blaser states, “evidence… suggests antibiotics may permanently change the beneficial bacteria that we’re carrying” (Conley, 2011, para. 3). Antibiotics cannot tell beneficial bacteria from harmful bacteria, so by taking excess antibiotics people are constantly killing off the good bacteria, especially the flora in the gut. This causes more bacteria to gather, and it is hypothesized that many illnesses such as Type 1 Diabetes, allergies, and inflammatory bowel disease are on the rise due to this. People al...
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...pay. Critical Care, 12(4), 3. doi:10.1186/cc6820
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What are the side effects of antibiotics? (2012, April 5). In NPS Medicinewise. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from http://www.nps.org.au/medicines/infections-and-infestations/antibiotics/antibiotics-for-respiratory-tract-infections/for-individuals/side-effects-of-antibiotics
Zeltner, B. (2013, June 3). Antibiotics are commonly prescribed, but are they necessary?. In Cleveland. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2013/06/antibiotics_are_commonly_presc.html
Public health officials estimate that up to 50% of all antibiotics use in the U.S is either unnecessary or in appropriate.
According to USA Today, U.S. doctors are prescribing enough antibiotics to give to 4 out of 5 Americans every year, an alarming pace that suggests they are being excruciatingly overused. In fact, Dr. Aunna Pourang from MD states, “to give you an idea of how high the pressure is to prescribe antibiotics, I didn’t get a job once because during the interview I told the lead physician that I only prescribe antibiotic prescriptions when they are warranted.” The development and widespread obsession of antibiotics, or drugs that kill bacteria and thereby reduce infection, has helped billions of people live longer, healthier lives. Unfortunately, the more we rely on and abuse antibiotics, the more bacteria develop resistance to them, which makes treating infections that much more challenging and leads to the growth of drug-resistant strains of bacteria. Research from the Center of Disease Control found that two million people in the United States become infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria, while 23,000 people die from such infections each year. Americans often aren’t informed on the power of the human body and rush to assumptions when perfection isn’t present. In a nutshell, the obsession of antibiotics is quite deadly and needs to be addressed before it’s too
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.
Nurses should take a leading role in reducing the impact of disease on patients and influence the expansion of evidence based infection prevention practice. Antimicrobial resistance prevention must remain a huge priority. In times of opposing priorities concerning patient safety, progress has been made in undertaking these bacteria’s and infections. The outlook of a near future without helpful antibiotics should not be dismissed, and all us in positions of influence should encourage and educate the conscientious use of antimicrobials seriously and do what we can to stop the situation from spreading.
“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.
Resistance arises from mutations that are not under the control of humans, but the evolution of bacteria has been sped along by the overexposure of antibiotics to both people and animals. The number of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria in an area is closely related to the frequency that antibiotics that are prescribed (Todar, 2012). Patients often unnecessarily demand antibiotics to treat common colds or simple illnesses that are not caused by bacteria. Instead, these infections are caused by viruses which, unlike bacteria, are unaffected by antibiotics. Incorrect diagnosis can also lead patients to using unnecessary antibiotics, which can sometimes be even more dangerous than otherwise left untreated. Besides the fact that antibiotics kill off beneficial bacteria in the intestines, misuse of antibiotics provides an opportunity ...
"Possible Side-effects from Vaccines." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 04 Feb. 2014. Web. 7 Apr. 2014.
Over the years humans have tried every possibility to overcome the health problems, spread of epidemics and infections, disease control and have worked towards a healthy society free of disease and health problems. They have succeeded to a great extent. The book “Good germs, bad germs” describes that though the life expectancy is now far more as it was in previous eras. Epidemic problems and infectious diseases are now getting lesser and lesser and humans are being treated successfully. The hygienic conditions have also been improved so as to ensure least growth of microbes, germs, parasites and bacteria. Antibiotics have been invented to address diseases and infections caused by bacteria and viruses. With all these substantial efforts the biologists, physicians and scientists have triggered another epidemic which is even more severe. They have killed those microbes and bacterial species which were human friendly and as a result of either their disruption or mutation, pathogenic bacteria have even become more active and resistant to treatments. This has led to increased ineffectiveness of antibiotic drugs, low immunity and various infections and inflammatory diseases. The chlorinated water for drinking and food processing along with excessive hygienic conditions indicates our fight against these bacteria and germs. Further, these antibiotics are even given to the livestock which becomes our food and as result many of their resistant germs end up in our digestive tract and other organs. Thus, the war against microbes through excessive cleanliness and use of antibiotics has resulted in antibiotic resistance among humans, which has become one of the prominent problems of medical science
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”.
"Side Effects of Steroid Abuse - Steroidabuse.com." Side Effects of Steroid Abuse - Steroidabuse.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 July 2013.
Generally in life, an overabundance of anything is thought of as a blessing.For instance, most people would say that there is no point where someone has too much money, or too much time; however, having and using too many antibiotics can be a problem.With the advent of antibiotics in 1929 Fleming warned that, "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."[1]Following with Fleming's words antibiotics need to be prescribed in a judicious fashion, not of one with a careless action, "one third of the 150 million outpatient prescriptions are unnecessary."[2]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 physician but also the patient.
Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) Symptoms, Causes, Treatment - What is a urinary tract infection (UTI)? - MedicineNet. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2016, from http://www.medicinenet.com/urinary_tract_infection/page2.htm
"Adenosine - What Is Adenosine?" Adenosine - What Is Adenosine? N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014.
“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