Why a Resistant strand of Group A Streptococcus is Causing Problems in Children and Becoming Resistant to Antibiotics
Abstract: Streptococcus is a bacteria that has been evolving through the recent centuries. A new form of these bacteria from group A streptococcus is becoming resistant and creating a whole new kind of this disease. The new form of this disease is twenty seven percent resistant to the antibiotic and is causing pneumonia meningitis in children. The new cures being created to fight against these bacteria are great except for that the new vaccine has no effect on children. Researches have finally found a vaccine that is effective on children because of a protein that is attached to the vaccine. Within a period of three years a study was done that followed eight hospitals in the United States. Within these eight hospitals researchers followed cases of children who received the resistant strand of S pyogenes. From the S pyogenes the children received the disease pneumonia meningitis. As they followed these children the researchers monitored the antibiotics given to them.
For millions of years bacteria have been ruling the earth and are becoming more dominant with each day. Bacteria are some of the strongest species to have inhabited the earth; they survived and lived long after the dinosaurs. Even after all species including humans are gone, these species will be present. In the late 19th century streptococcus was discovered, but with no cure for it. Scientist has developed vaccines and antibiotics, but within the past centuries a new strand of streptococcus has emerged. This new strand is S. pyogenes. S. pyogenes have become resistant to these treatments that have been discovered, the problem that occurs is the...
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...ibiotics and so if people start to misuse these antibiotics this strand will continue to become more resistant. If this strain of streptococcus continues to become resistant there will be nothing left that can stop this bacteria. Within a few centuries these bacteria will become uncontrollable and a deadly bacteria.
Streptococcus Group A 5
References
Cedars- Sinai Medical Center (1999, January). Sightings Bacteria Becoming Increasingly Resistant to Antibiotics. July 18, 2005: www.sciencedaily.com
Sharma Sat MD. (2004, November).Streptococcus Group A Infections. July 16, 2005.
American Academy of Otolaryngology(AAO). Sore Throats. July 25, 2005. www.entnet.org/healthinfo/throat/sore_throat.cfm
Carauana Louis B., Ph.D. (2003, July). Group A Streptococcus-Streptococcus pyogenes Flesh Eating Streptococcus. July 28, 2005. Members.tripod.com/LouCaru/index- 7.html.
It is not unusual for some healthy women to harbor Group B streptococcus bacteria in their rectum and vagina. These microorganisms do not usually cause disease when few in number, but when they grow in number and colonize these areas, bacterial infection can become severe.
My disease is Streptococcal pneumonia or pneumonia is caused by the pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae. Streptococcus pneumoniae is present in human’s normal flora, which normally doesn’t cause any problems or diseases. Sometimes though when the numbers get too low it can cause diseases or upper respiratory tract problems or infections (Todar, 2008-2012). Pneumonia caused by this pathogen has four stages. The first one is where the lungs fill with fluid. The second stage causes neutrophils and red blood cells to come to the area which are attracted by the pathogen. The third stage has the neutrophils stuffed into the alveoli in the lungs causing little bacteria to be left over. The fourth stage of this disease the remaining residue in the lungs are take out by the macrophages. Aside from these steps pneumonia follows, if the disease should persist further, it can get into the blood causing a systemic reaction resulting in the whole body being affected (Ballough). Some signs and symptoms of this disease are, “fever, malaise, cough, pleuritic chest pain, purulent or blood-tinged sputum” (Henry, 2013). Streptococcal pneumonia is spread through person-to-person contact through aerosol droplets affecting the respiratory tract causing it to get into the human body (Henry, 2013).
The article’s information is presented with the goal of informing a reader on vaccines. The evidence is statistical and unbiased, showing data on both side effects and disease prevention, providing rates of death and serious illness from both sides. This evidence is sourced from a variety of medical organizations and seems reliable, logical, and easily understood, no language that would inspire an emotional response is used. The validity of studies is not mentioned in the article, but it does encourage readers to investigate further to help make a decision. The article allows a reader to analyze the presented evidence and come to their own
With the earliest recordings coming from the Fifth Century B.C., streptococcus pyogenes, and more frequently, its symptoms have been prevalent among doctors and historians for hundreds of years. The first mentioning of streptococcus pyogenes is to be credited to Hippocrates, in which he describes the relative symptoms of the flesh-eating bacteria in its early stages. Then depicted by Billroth in 1874, patients carrying erysipelas were determined to have this certain bacterial infection. In 1883, the chain-forming bacteria were isolated by Fehleisen; and in the following year, Rosenbach applied the S. pyogenes name. Further advances in hemolytic and non-hemolytic studies were made by Lancefield in the 1930’s, in which the alpha, beta, and gamma subgroups of the hemolytic structures – detailed and defined by Schottmueller and Brown - were divided into serotypes.
Each day researchers are finding out about vaccines and are realizing that there are a lot more risks than benefits. Dr Phillip F. Incao explains: “Today, far more children suffer from allergies and other chronic immune system disorders than from life-threatening infectious disease. It is neither reasonable nor prudent to persist in presuming that the benefits of any vaccination outweigh its risk” (qtd in Spaker). While infectious diseases are becoming uncommon there is no need for any person to get vaccinated. There have been many issues surrounding vaccinations all around the world.
Necrotizing Fasciitis (flesh eating bacteria ) from an essay by Katrina Tram Duong, edited by S.N. Carson M.D.
Some call it “horror'; and some call it “the super germ';, but now, our always known “regular'; bacteria, those one-celled creatures once considered under control with antibiotics, have invaded our hospitals and headlines with a vengeance. The vengeance used against us is caused by an existing organism called necrotizing fasciitis, the so-called flesh-eating bacteria, caused by Group A streptococcus. What this organism does is progressively destroy the human body tissue all the way to the bone. This organism has amazingly outsmarted us of even our most potent drugs.
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.
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a Gram-positive and fast-growing bacteria which inhabit upper respiratory tract in humans. Moreover, it is an aerotolerant anaerobe and usually causes respiratory diseases including pneumonia, otitis media, meningitis, peritonitis, paranasal sinusitis, septic arthritis, and osteomyelitis (Todar, 2003). According to Tettelin et al., more than 3 million of children die from meningitis or pneumonia worldwide (2001). S.pneumoniae has an enzyme known as autolysin that is responsible for disintegration and disruption of epithelial cells. Furthermore, S.pneumoniae has many essential virulence factors like capsule which is made up of polysaccharides that avoids complement C3b opsonization of cells by phagocytes. Many vaccines contain different capsular antigens which were isolated from various strains (Todar, 2003). There are plenty of S.pneumoniae strains that developed resistance to most popular antibiotics like macrolides, fluoroquinolones, and penicillin since 1990 (Tettelin et al., 2001). Antibiotic resistance was developed by the gene mutation and selection processes that, as a consequence, lead to the formation of penicillin-binding proteins, etc. (Todar, 2003).
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”.
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.
Streptococcus pyogenes is thought to live benignly within one in five people, and is thusly one of the most common pathogens among humans. Due to its common
This turn of events presents us with an alarming problem. Strains of bacteria that are resistant to all prescribed antibiotics are beginning to appear. As a result, diseases such as tuberculosis and penicillin-resistant gonorrhea are reemerging on a worldwide scale (1). 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.
The emergence of Penicillin marked the dawn of the antibiotic era and allowed for diseases which normally ended in death or dysfunction to be eliminated and for people to carry on living healthy lives. It is estimated that 90% of children who had meningitis of the bacterial kind in the pre-antibiotic era would either die or survive the illness with a physical impairment. Strep throat, whooping cough, tuberculosis and pneumonia are among some of the other fatal bacterial diseases which would usually result in a fatality. Antibiotics decreased the mortality rates, and so new antibiotics were formed.
This enables a significant percentage of individuals who oppose vaccines to reconcile with those who do not, as this eliminates the concern regarding adverse reactions. According to an article titled “Vaccine herd effect,” herd immunity has pervaded many communities to help minimize the spread of disease. For example, in the 1990s, a vaccine was introduced that targeted a strain of disease known as streptococcus pneumoniae, which can potentially cause pneumonia. The CDC discovered a fifty percent reduction in pneumonia cases among the elderly despite the vaccine being offered primarily to children (Kim, T. H., Johnstone, J., & Loeb, M., 2011).