Antibiotic Resistance: A Modern Day Plague

There are several important steps in preventing the spread of MRSA: washing hands before and after patient contact, using gloves appropriately, covering any cuts on the hands, maintaining healthy hands, avoiding overcrowding in hospital departments, maintaining a clean environment, and prudent antibiotic prescribing (3). Hand washing is the most effective way to keep from spreading infections. The CDC recommends that you spend 20 seconds scrubbing your hands with soap while washing your hands (1). You can sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice all the way through also (1). If soap and water are not available, the CDC recommends using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol (1). This should not be used as a first line of defense. Hand washing is always the best way to get rid of harmful bacterium. Gloves and gowns are another great way to create a barrier between you and the bacteria. Proper removal of gloves and gown are vitally important. If your gloves are contaminated with MRSA, and you remove them improperly, you have completely defeated the point of even putting the gloves on. Once a surface is contaminated with MRSA, it can live prolonged periods of time unless removed through cleaning (5). For contaminated surfaces, you would want to use a disinfectant. Choosing the proper disinfectant, along with following the directions of use on the packaging, will rid the surface form microbes. It is extremely important to follow the directions on the packaging of the disinfectant because each disinfectant is different. One may need you to keep the surface wet for 2 minutes, while the other requires the surface to be kept wet for 10 minutes. If the surface isn’t kept wet for the allotted time, the surface will not be disinfected and will continue to contaminate

As such, the diagnosis and management of AOM has a significant impact on the health of children, cost of providing care, and overall use of antibacterial agents (AAFP, 2004). Watchful waiting can have many benefits for the children and the provider if used properly. Diagnosing AOM can be tricky. The signs and symptoms can also be related to other illnesses such as an upper respiratory virus. Throwing antibiotics at any illness use to be the course of action. However, now that there is evidence that bacteria have become resistant to some antibiotics, clinicians are testing out other means of treating illnesses. If the child presenting with symptoms of AOM has no underlying conditions and has means to follow up with the doctor if the symptoms progress, watchful waiting is an appropriate approach for treating the child. According to the research, placebo controlled trials have shown that children have responded well without antibacterial intervention. Giving the opportunity for the illness to resolve without antibacterial intervention not only benefits the child but, the caregivers and the clinician. It benefits the child by not being exposed to antibiotics that are not needed, therefore creating a potential resistance to that antibiotic. It benefits the caregiver by not spending money on a medication their child does not need. Last, it benefits the clinician by preventing resistance to an antibiotic that may be useful in the near future.

Antibiotic resistance is when microorganisms, such as bacteria, are able to survive an exposure to antibiotics and these bacteria are now resistant to the effects of these antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance in bacteria has been an issue since antibiotics were discovered. The fact that bacteria can become resistant to our medical treatments such as antibiotics is a natural evolutionary process, but there are certain human contributions that definitely speed up the process. For example, one of the main contributions that will be discussed is the problem of over prescription of the antibiotic drugs. The

The first things civilians can do is minimize their use of antibacterial soap. Most soaps like this advertise that it kill 99.99% of all bacteria and it does. Unfortunately it kills both good and bad bacteria, which means it leaves the .01% to continue to build it immunity against the antibiotic. Instead of using the antibacterial soaps it is better to wash ones hands with regular soap and hot water. This simply removes the bacteria from the surface of the hands instead of dowsing the bacteria with chemicals that they will eventually become immune to. Civilians may think that using regular soap will not be as effective however in the article “The Dawn of the Domestic Superbug” author Pat Thomas elaborates on a study done on the topic,” Even so, five years ago the American Medical Association (AMA) issued a startling statement saying that antibacterial soaps were no more effective against germs than common soap” (par. 5). The article later goes on to explain more recent

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

The problem is that antibiotics resistance has become a very big problem in todays society. Antibiotics are no longer effective against certain super-bugs such as MRSA.

Finally, the most important reason there should be strict regulations to curb the overuse of antibiotics in factory farming is because this practice is creating breeding grounds for super bugs. A 2008 report from Pew Commission report on Industrial Farm Animal Production concluded that “of particular concern is the rapid rise in antibiotic-resistant microbes, an inevitable consequence of the widespread use of antibiotics as feed additives in industrial livestock operations” (Sayre 76-83). Most often the superbugs hitch a ride into the surrounding environment in the mountains of waste produced on industrial scale farms. They end up in our ground water, soil, and even our meats. Making themselves know in the ever increasing numbers of antibiotic-resistant infections that now kill more people annually than AIDS.

In the past tense 60 years, antibiotic drugs have been critical to the fight against infectious disease caused by bacteria and other microbe. Antimicrobial chemotherapy has been a lead cause for the dramatic rise of norm life expectancy in the Twentieth Century. 1 However, disease-causing bug that have become resistant to antibiotic drug therapy are an increasing public health trouble. “Wound contagion, tuberculosis, pneumonia, gonorrhea, childhood ear infections, and septicemia are just a few of the diseases that have become hard to treat with antibiotics.” 2 One part of the job is that bacteria and other germ that cause infections are remarkably resilient and have developed several ways to resist antibiotics and other antimicrobial drug. 3 Another part of the problem is due to increasing use, and abuse, of existing

Some of the most common concerns involve how these resistant bacteria spread and the effects they have on people. Antibiotic bacteria are commonly explained as antibiotics killing bacteria of the illness and also some good bacteria, making the drug-resistant bacteria grow and take over. For example, the use of antibiotics in agriculture for the food-producing animals contribute to the spread of resistant bacteria, causing the bacteria to then be transmitted to humans through the consumption of food. This should mean that if the animals are being prescribed these antibiotics, then they shouldn’t be allowed to be used for food. I think that even though the ranchers would be losing money, it’s not worth it to feed people animals with bad bacteria in them. The pneumonia infections have decreased,

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

There is much speculation about what has caused the increased resistance of bacteria to antibiotics and how this problem has developed.

The overall treatment plan for pneumonia is medically based, “with the appropriate antibiotic almost always cures bacterial and mycoplasma pneumonia” (Lewis et al., 2014, p.664). “In addition to antibiotic therapy, supportive measures may be used, including oxygen therapy to treat hypoxemia, analgesics to relieve the chest pain for patient comfort, and antipyretics such as aspirin or acetaminophen for significantly elevated temperature” (Lewis et al., 2014, p. 664). In A.D’s case, she was started on Ceftriaxone 535mg every day by intravenous therapy and then switched to Amoxicillin 360mg by mouth every 8hours to facilitate discharge as her condition was improving. Also, the patient had 160mg of Tylenol every 4 to 6 hours as needed for any instances of a fever and was on 0.5L of oxygen via nasal prongs.

Through the transferring of genetic material, quickly spreading traits and passing them along, genetic traits in bacteria are building a resistance to overused and over prescribed antibiotics. Our future generations will suffer as we unknowingly already are, but may advance to a more dramatic and negative stance. Awareness brought by Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is broadcasted towards parents of patients, patients themselves, and most importantly, doctors. Promoted by these campaigns is a set of regulations for these doctors who unnecessarily prescribe unneeded antibiotics, becoming the biggest factor triggering the uprising in antibiotic resistance. Not only are these antibiotics becoming less and less effective, but they are also causing long and short term health effects towards society. What are the human errors that result in such alarming statistics and how do we know when antibiotics are and are not necessary?

Antibiotic resistance or superbugs is / are global issues. They might not be as much of a problem now but they can wipe out thousands of people with a snap of the fingers. I think we can fight the superbugs by not abusing drug use and not giving drugs to animals that we eat. Superbugs are a certain type of bacteria that is immune to all medicine that you throw at it and can be very deadly. Antibiotic resistance is one of the world 's most worrisome health issues. Improper use of antibiotics are the main cause of drug resistant bacteria.I think we can fight the superbugs / antibiotic resistance by not abusing drug use and not giving drugs to animals that we eat. Also by using drugs / medicine properly and not overusing them. Here is some information on antibiotic resistance to help you know more about it, know how to prevent it and finally be cautious when eating at fast food restaurants.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest threats to global health, food security and development today. It occurs naturally, but the pace of its process speeds up when given to humans and animals and it can affect anyone regardless of age and country of residence (Laxminarayan et al., 2013). According to World Health Organization (WHO), there are 700,000 people die every year because of antibiotic resistance (WHO,2016). Antibiotic resistance is on the rise to dangerous levels around the world, and new resistance mechanisms are emerging and spreading globally and threaten our ability to treat common infectious diseases. A study by the Public Health Foundation in England between 2010 and 2013 found that prescription antibiotics increased by 6 percent and Escherichia coli resistance was recorded by 12 percent for the same period. There is a growing list of infections such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, septicaemia and gonorrhoea, which have become more difficult, sometimes impossible, to treat because of the low efficacy of antibiotics (Levy and Marshall, 2004). The world needs to change the way that antibiotics are prescribed and used. Even if new drugs are introduced, antibiotic resistance will continue to pose a significant threat unless it converts the behaviour of these drugs, a change that must also involve measures that limit the spread of infection by vaccination, washing hands, safe sex and take care of food hygiene. The abuse and excessive use of antibiotics