Antibiotic Therapy For Treatment And Prevention Of A Bacterial Infection

Antibiotics are inarguably one of the greatest advances in medical science of the past century. Although the first natural antibiotic Penicillin was not discovered until 1928 by Scottish biologist Alexander Flemming, evidence exists that certain plant and mold growths were used to treat infections in ancient Egypt, ancient India, and classical Greece (Forrest, 1982). In our modern world with the advent of synthetic chemistry synthetic antibiotics like Erithromycin and its derivative Azithromycin have been developed. Antibiotics have many uses including the treatment of bacterial and protozoan infection, in surgical operations and prophylactically to prevent the development of an infection. Through these applications, antibiotics have saved countless lives across the world and radically altered the field of medicine. Though a wonderful and potentially lifesaving tool, antibiotic use is not without its disadvantages. Mankind has perhaps been too lax in regulation and too liberal in application of antibiotics and growing antibiotic resistance is the price we must now pay. A recent study showed that perhaps 70% of bacterial infections acquired during hospital visits in the United States are resistant to at least one class of antibiotic (Leeb, 2004). Bacteria are not helpless and their genetic capabilities have allowed them to take advantage of society’s overuse of antibiotics, allowing them to develop

At least two million people are infected with antibiotic resistant superbugs and at least 23,000 die from them.

In order to control the growth and spread of harmful microbes that can cause disease, we use antimicrobial agent. Disinfectants are antimicrobial agents that are use in a physical process or used in a form of a chemical agent. Disinfectants are used to destroy vegetative pathogen but are not effective against bacterial endospores. Disinfectants remove harmful products of toxins from material and usually are used on inanimate objects since they can be harmful to human tissues. Another antimicrobial agent used is, antibiotics. Antibiotics are usually prescribed to a person to cure a bacterial or viral infection. Antibiotics are used to inhibit the growth of infectious agents in the human body. The disk diffusion test known as the Kirby-Bauer

(KArch) We as human-hosts are not just helpless victims, our continuous reliance on antibiotics treatment helps contribute to the ever growing problem. The increased and inappropriate use of antibiotic therapy is the main cause of these antibiotic resistant bacteria. Patient this day and age are often prescribed pills for every condition. Patients come into doctors’ offices demanding antibiotics and healthcare providers are filling these orders. This in turn contributed to this growing chain of antimicrobial resistance.

Antibiotic resistance can develop wherever antibiotics are: medical facilities, animal products and communities. Breaks in infection control, inadequate water sanitation and poor hygiene all contribute to the spread of resistant bacteria from person to person (Collignon, et al., 2015). The majority of antibiotic usage worldwide is in animals raised as a food source (Collignon, et al., 2015). 80% of antibiotic use in the United States is for growth promotion and disease prevention of farm animals used for food sources (CDC, 2015). This usage of antibiotics leads to the development of resistant bacteria, which spread to people via the food chain or water (Collignon, et al., 2015).

Little research has been done on human superbugs but even less on antibiotic resistance in animals and whether the bacteria can be passed on to humans (Press Release 1998). The problem with the growing number of bacteria that are resistance to available antibiotics, is that there are very few new antibiotics in development. The financial costs of creating newer and stronger antibiotics are exceedingly high. Pharmaceutical manufactures either don’t have the money or refuse to because of the small amount of profit they will make from these one off drugs. Research institutes are another option for new antibiotics but also don’t have the sufficient financial support (Kesselheim 2010). Antibiotic resistant patients require extensive care and there are rare cases that they need complete isolation. The cost of this intensive care for long periods of time is phenomenal. With growing rates of resistance cases more isolation units are going to be in need which will cost governments hundreds, even thousands of dollars to provide (Lansing 2011). The economic factors of antibiotic resistance for developing world countries are worrying. Some counties health systems have no where near enough financial support or staff members to help the number of superbug patients (Kaier 2011). The economic implications of the growing rates of superbug cases is concerning. Globally there is very

The specific purpose of this speech is to inform people about the emergence and evolution of antimicrobial resistance towards antimicrobial drugs and how microorganisms have continued to build resistance to antimicrobial drugs since the 1940s.

Antibiotic resistance is a phenomenon in which germs evolve to be able to resist the action of drugs. This causes illnesses that were once easily curable with antibiotics to become dangerous infections, requiring alternative medications or higher doses. With millions of deaths increasing every year, antibiotic resistance has become one of the world's most pressing public health problems. This essay will explain the key causes of the emergence of resistant bacteria, including antibiotic misuse, inappropriate prescribing and availability of few new antibiotics, and outline relevant effects of antibiotic resistance.

The White House has released a plan with specific actions for the Federal departments and agencies to help stop the rise of antibiotic- resistances in bacteria. Antibiotics are very important for society. With antibiotics it saves millions of people over the world. Treating bacterial infections and performing chemotherapy, surgery, dialysis, and organ transplantation will become more difficult due to these bacteria.

Effective treatment of infections depends on selecting the source, site, complete medical history, also, conduct a physical assessment to identify the signs and symptoms consistent with the current infection. Other factors include patient’s age, weight, present health condition and the severity of the infection should be put into consideration (Arcangelo & Peterson, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to describe the categories of antimicrobial agents, also, description of the differences between viral and bacterial infections will be reviewed. In addition, explain why proper identification of viral and bacterial infections is the key to selecting the proper antimicrobial agent.

The development of antibiotics was an important advancement in 20th century medicine. Previously deadly infectious diseases are now routinely treated with antibiotics. Moreover, for modern-day medical procedures such as chemotherapy treatment to be successful, antibiotic use is necessary. For these reasons, the prospect of bacteria developing widespread resistance to antibiotics is a major concern as it would render many modern-day medical therapies unviable.

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).

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).

Amoxicillin is a -lactam antibiotic that inhibits the crosslinking of peptidoglycan (Fisher et al, 2005). -lactamase is an enzyme that inhibits a -lactam, therefore bacteria with -lactamase have antibiotic resistance to amoxicillin (Fisher et al, 2005). However, in this experiment amoxicillin was combined with clavulanic acid (AmC-30), which is a -lactamase inhibitor (Rice et al, 1994). It was expected that Neisseriaceae would be susceptible to AmC-30 due to its broad spectrum of activity that included gram negative cocci. Research shown that penicillinase-producing Neisseria may be resistant to AmC-30, and contain a unique plasmid that other strains lack (Rice et al, 1994). The tested Neisseria was indeed resistant to penicillin, so it may also contain the plasmid that gives it resistance to AmC-30. This resistance may be a result of the isolate possessing a gene that codes for a

β lactam antibiotics have continued to be the most popular drug for treating bacterial infections since its discovery in 1928 by Fleming and its introduction as an antibacterial agent in the early 1950.1 Most commonly used β lactam drugs today stems from the original discovery and development of natural products from microorganisms like penicillin, cephalosporin and other β lactam based antibiotics (Figure 1). 1,2 However, soon after its commercialization and widespread usage, β lactamase secreting penicillin resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus were isolated.3 The introduction of methicillin (a β lactamase-insensitive semi-synthetic penicillin), to curb the resistance problem resulted in the evolution of another resistant strain known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).4