Essay on Antibiotic Overuse – Risks in Everyday Life

The development of penicillin provided a major stepping stone for the practice of medicine, and has saved the lives of countless individuals since its synthesis.

In this reading there was many very interesting facts about penicillin. Penicillin was a breakthrough in the medical field in the 20th century. The scientist Alexander Fleming had accidentally spilled a vile of bacteria on to a plate of bacteria to his benefit he found that is had stopped the growth of bacteria. This accidental discover has benefited everyone in the world because we have to get these shots if we are infected, plus it saved many life’s in world war II. However, Penicillin is considered an antibiotic chemical that is created by living organism to stop the growth of bacteria and prevent an illness if people were to come into contact with this problem. Since the discovery and massive stock piling of this cure it has become less

Penicillin brought about the biggest search in medical history. It was reasoned that if there was one antibiotic in nature, there must be many more, and there were.

The misuse of penicillin and other antibiotics however is causing the growing problem of antibiotic resistance in which seemingly harmless infections turn to be deadly and dangerous. Antibiotics are not only casually used as treatments for bacterial infections, but are also used in agriculture and veterinary medicine, creating controversy on the proper uses of antibiotics. As advancements in the medical fields proved to be beneficial for a short period of time, today the misuse of these innovations are creating more and more problems that have proven to be dangerous to the accustomed health of the global population. Antibiotics were not always considered to be a superficial medication and, in fact, have been naturally used for millions of years, like with ants and their symbiosis with antibiotic producing fungi. Humans do not fully realize the value that antibiotics have brought to the population and do not take measures to preserve their use. In contrast, humans take for advantage the natural benefits that is given to them to overly benefit themselves, such as while creating revenue through mass production despite warning from scientists. This selfish misuse leads to consequences in which the future will have to provide solutions for, and perhaps even follow in the ants’ footsteps.

Penicillin is an antibiotic medicine used to treat harmful bacteria and infections inside and outside of your body. Alexander Fleming, a bacteriologist, discovered it in the early 1900s. As stated by Brittany Connors on page 125 of “The Discovery of Penicillin: The True Story”, “Fleming often admitted that he discovered Penicillin by accident, and that all of the work was done by nature.” Although the finding of this cure may have been an accident, it’s use case has helped save many lives and keep many from sickness. There were numerous events that led to the discovery and development of this treatment such as Fleming’s messy laboratory, Florey’s realization of the medical potential of Penicillin, and Moyer’s success in raising the production yield.

“In 1938, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain began to study penicillin” (Connors 126). This is important because it means extensive research was being done to figure out a way for penicillin to be applied on humans. “Part of the reason for their increased effort in discovering how penicillin could be used on humans was that a drug was needed to reduce bacterial infections in soldiers’ wounds” (Connors 126). This means there was a need for the development of penicillin, this fact probably motivated the scientists. In the end, without the development of penicillin, it could not have become such a widely used

Similar to Corn Flakes, Silly Putty, etc, penicillin was not made for its original intention and was an accidental discovery. Bacteriologist Alexander Fleming had left his laboratory a mess when he went on a vacation. When he arrived back to continue his work, he recognized that all the petri dishes he left out were congested with mold. Then, one dish that “contained a staphylococci culture” with a ring around the mold had drawn attention to Fleming. Stated from “Not-So-Dumb-Luck”, “. . . he found that the ring was bacteria-free, and that the mold was a rare spore called Penicillium notatum”. Since Fleming had a mycology lab downstairs and wasn’t the tidiest of experimenters, the mold most likely originated from the lab below and may have interacted with one of the cultures of the dishes. It was realized that the bacteria in the dish was killed by the mold, thus Alexander Fleming researched how the bacteria was exterminated. Eventually, he concluded that “penicillin was the antibacterial agent in the mold”, however he couldn’t determine its use for humans. The discovery of penicillin was entirely of nature’s work and an accident, admitted by Fleming.

Andrew J. Moyer continued the later development of penicillin by making it more affordable and accessible. “In 1943, the required clinical trials were performed and penicillin was shown to be the most effective antibacterial agent to date.” (Bellis) Penicillin has become one of the most effective antibacterial drugs in the US. During the WWII time we needed to ship these medicines to our soldiers, and in high demand. As it was found more commonly and easier to make, the prices dropped too. “As production was increased, the price dropped from nearly priceless in 1940, to $20 per dose in July 1943, to $0.55 per dose ny 1946” (Bellis). As the prices become cheaper, it was more accessible than ever. People and hospitals came up with a cheaper better working option for people's

Antibiotics are a powerful medication that fights bacterial infection. Antibiotics can save lives. Antibiotics specifically treat infections caused by bacteria, such as Staph., Strep., or E. coli., and either kill the bacteria or keep it from reproducing and growing (2016, L. Anderson, PharmD). Your body's natural defenses can usually take it from there. Antibiotics are specific for the type of bacteria being treated and in general, cannot be interchanged from one infection to other. Antibiotics are not the correct choice for all infection. Antibiotics can not fight infection caused by viruses such as cold, flu, coughs, sore throats, or acute sinusitis. Antibiotic penicillin in the 1920s made a big impact on human history. Not only did it lead

When antibiotics were discovered in the early 1900’s, it revolutionized the medical world forever. Before this discovery millions and millions of people died from minor infections; there was not anything to fight off the growing bacteria. There are many types of antibiotics but the discovery of penicillin was first and it would leave everyone amazed and alive to this day.

Before penicillin there was no antibiotic for infections such as pneumonia and other things like that. Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming from a laboratory accident. Penicillin eventually became the “wonder drug” because of it ability to cure a wide-range of fatal illnesses.

One person that has helped make penicillin a widely used medicine today is Alexander Flemming. Alexander Flemming went on vacation, but when he came back, he found mold on every dish that was left open in his laboratory. Flemming examined each dish but found one in particular that stood out. The staphylococci culture dish had a yellow- green tuft of mold with a ring around it. In “The History of Penicillin”, it states,” Curious, Alexander Flemming grew the mold in a pure culture and found that it produced a substance that killed a number of disease-

A major event that leads to the use of penicillin today was its discovery, despite that was a total accident. In 1928, scientist Alexander Fleming went on vacation and left his lab in a total mess. When he returned from his trip, he noticed some odd things had occurred. The text states, “He observed that a plate culture of Staphylococcus had been contaminated by a blue-green mold and that the colonies of bacteria adjacent to the mold were being dissolved”(Bellis 123). Not realizing it at first, but Fleming had just discovered that mold destroys bacteria. This rare substance was called Penicillium notatum, but the effects that penicillin would have on the human body was unclear, which prevented Fleming from doing any further development. Even though

The overuse of antibiotics has been a problem for well over a decade. This misuse leads to many nonvisible problems arising within the human population. As the use of antibiotics increases, the number of antibiotic resistant bacteria also increases. When bacteria become resistant to an antibiotic, another antibiotic must be used to try and kill it and the cycle becomes vicious. Michael Martin, Sapna Thottathil, and Thomas Newman stated that antimicrobial resistance is, “an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society” (2409).

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).