The Overuse Of Antibiotics And Antibiotics

A couple times a year local and national mass media put the spotlight on problems connected to antibiotic overuse. Some people consider those problems to be real and serious, and others think that the discussed topics are nothing more than new “fashionable” subjects to talk about, distracting people from “real” problems, such as climbing gas prices or war expenses. Meanwhile, antibiotic overuse continues as a common practice among US doctors and agribusinesses for the last 20 years. The practice of antibiotic overuse has put patient’s health at risk, contributed to antibiotic resistance and increased bacterial mutation to a new, stronger level; as well as it hitting the economy with new costly expenses in health care. It is time to stop

Throughout my life, adults have insisted the use of antibiotics to fight against the most inconsequential illnesses, whether it’s the cold or the flu. However, neither illness is due to invasion of bacteria. This misuse can lead to antibiotic resistance, also known as antimicrobial resistance(AMR), currently one of the central issues facing the public health system. While the process for antibiotic resistance occurs naturally through the process of adaptation, the mismanagement of antibiotic resources has accelerated the rate at which the bacteria adapt. The occurrence of this misinformation isn’t limited to a few adults: even some of my peers suggest taking antibiotics when faced with the flu. This leads to asking whether AMR is truly a problem and are present regulations enough to combat the issue.

Antibiotics have played an essential role in the fight against diseases and infections since the 1940’s. Antibiotics are a leading cause for the rise of global average life expectancy in the 20th and 21st century. They have greatly reduced illnesses and deaths due to diseases. With the introductions of antibiotics in the 1940’s, like penicillin into clinical practice, formally deadly illnesses became immediately curable and saved thousands of lives (Yim 2006). Antibiotic use has been beneficial and when prescribed and taken correctly their effects on patients are exceedingly valuable. However, because these drugs have been used so widely and for such a long period of time the bacteria that the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted,

The overconsumption of antibiotics is a big contribution to drug resistance and is why users should know what happens with the repeated use of these drugs. Even though some bacterial mutation occurs naturally, human use of antibacterial is the cause of higher-levels of resistance (Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics 2014). Bacteria mutate either by genetic mutation or by receiving the defensive agent. During an infection bacteria multiply naturally within the body and when exposed to antibiotics, bacteria have an opportunity to adapt to the drug (Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics 2014). During this period of

I am a hospital administrator. I am the head of the medical staff and I ensure that the medical facilities run efficiently and all the patients get exceptional care. I am also responsible for expanding our research programs for things like medicine. In addition to that, I arrange health services that go along with the policies of our hospital. I am here today because my actions will affect the health care standards of the hospital.

Antibiotic-resistant microbes infect more than two million Americans and kill over 100,000 each year. These numbers will continue to grow unless we make a drastic effort to curtail them. The necessary response is threefold and includes legislation, awareness, and activism. I will address all of these.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), “Antibiotic resistance is the ability of microbes to resist the effects of drugs – that is, the germs are not killed, and their growth is not stopped. Although some people are at greater risk than others, no one can completely avoid the risk of antibiotic-resistant infections” (“About Antimicrobial Resistance”). Antibiotic resistance has a higher chance of occurring with the more antibiotics taken, as the body adapts more and more each time. The CDC has collected data across the country, and has concluded that the estimated number of deaths caused by antibiotic resistance is 23,000, and that the number of illnesses is slightly higher than 2 million (“About Antimicrobial Resistance”). Already antibiotic resistance has affected millions of lives, and will continue to affect many more until antibiotic overuse is stopped

The continual chess game that we play against nature, she seems to outmaneuver us with every move that we make, regardless of our increasing amount of resources and knowledge. Dr. Lori Tishler of Harvard Medical School says on the school’s published web articles that drug-resistant bacteria sicken more than 2 million people in America each year and account for 23,00 deaths. People are still getting sick and dying all over the world, and when one microbial threat is neutralized, another drug-resistant strain is recognized. Here are some examples out of Dr. Kimberly Thompson’s book, Overkill: in

Antibiotics has played a huge role in the field of medicine since it was first discovered in 1928. Antibiotics are antimicrobial drug that kills or inhibits growth of diseases which prevents many illnesses. However, in the past decade, Antibiotic resistant bacteria has become the world’s latest pandemic. Many strains of bacteria have adapted and developed resistance against antibiotics. According to the CDC, “at least two million people are infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections.” (CDC) This is a problem because antibiotics are the number one defense tactics against bacterial infections. Without this line of defense, people vulnerable to bacteria growth which can cause problems in health.

In today’s modern society, the use of antibiotics is becoming more and more prevalent. Due to the global population’s increased usage of medicines, some types of bacteria have developed antibiotic resistance, creating a race of superbugs. Superbugs are bacteria that are resistant to multiple types of antibiotics, and have the ability to survive and even multiply, despite antibiotic presence. This causes great danger to society as individuals infected with these bugs cannot be treated, as the antibiotics are made redundant. (State Government of Victoria, 2015) The looming threat of widespread antibiotic resistant bacteria raises the question,

Throughout the centuries the improvement of medicine has always been on the run. Whether the cure for a viral or bacterial infection to the simple cure of a common cold, advances in medicine can be said to have had a great impact in the lives of many in the U.S. and around the world. In the U.S. alone, the life expectancy of an American increased from 49 years to 77 years because of the new way of life in the health aspect. There is no doubt that antibiotics specifically, not to say the prevention of diseases by public health regulations including over-the-counter drugs and surgical procedures, have saved thousands or even millions of lives in the U.S and around the world. However, there are many cases in which antibiotics are being overused, which in effect cause more harm than good.

But we take antibiotics for granted. Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus or (MRSA) before then infection with that bacteria had been almost exclusively contained the healthcare facilities. Today community-acquired MRSA is so common that we pretty much assume that any staph infection is “MRSA”. Concern about the rise of resistance often focuses on overuse of antibiotics. There’s plenty of evidence that the users are the problem. In a recent study show, almost two third of the people believe that antibiotics could be used to treat cold and flu, which are of course caused by viruses. Antibiotics kill bacteria not viruses. Everytime we use antibiotics we increase the chance for resistant strains to develop. Bacteria are very good at the evolution game and killing of more susceptible strains leaves the more resistant ones to fill the gap. Bacteria have also become good at transmitting resistance abilities through plasmids which are small circular DNA molecules that can be transferred like a hand off from bacteria to bacteria without any reproduction. The widespread use of antibiotics and the raising of animals has clearly contributed to the development

Common illnesses like bacterial pneumonia, post-operative infections, certain cancers, as well as the world’s biggest infectious killers – tuberculosis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and malaria – are increasingly difficult to treat because of the emergence and spread of drug resistance.1 Worsening antimicrobial resistance could have serious public health, economic and social implications around the world. The World Bank has warned that antimicrobial resistance could cause as much damage to the global economy as the 2008 financial crisis.2

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like you to look around the convention hall and ponder what ailments reside in this building. What health issues do you and your neighbors face today? Obesity, allergies, autoimmune disorders, mental illnesses, the list of possible issues is immense and difficult to fathom. Now let’s fast-backward to the past, to the eighteenth century, to a time before modern medical interventions and chemical treatments. What would we be suffering from then? This is equally difficult to imagine. Tuberculosis? Shingles? Cholera? Now what if I told you that in the near future, we could be suffering from all of these maladies at the same time. An obese tuberculosis patient could

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).