Antibiotic Resistance And Its Effects On The World 's Most Worrisome Health Issues Essay

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.

It is thought that overuse of antibiotics is related to the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) (Austin). As a consequence, there has been an increasing trend to promote appropriate prescribing of antibiotics so as to maximise their therapeutic efficacy and minimise the outbreak of resistance. Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs in hospitals are exemplary of a method used to promote rational prescription of antibiotics. In this review, we will briefly introduce some examples of AMR to illustrate the extent of this issue. We will then move on to describe AMS programs and the strategies required to

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 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

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

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

Possible solutions for resistance in the future are to find new antibiotics in niches besides soil, such as the marine environment as globalization and deforestation make new soil discoveries harder each day. Educating people about resistance to prevent misuse is important as well because not everybody knows about the growing resistance problem. If people know about the resistance problem, proper use of antibiotics would increase. Antibiotics today are easily accessible without the need of prescription in most cases, leading to the wrong self-diagnosis based on observation instead of actual tests. Creating more regulations to ensure prescriptions and correct diagnosis will help with the misuse of antibiotics. Stopping their use as growth hormones in agriculture will also help because the antibiotics from the plants and animals are able to unnecessarily get into a person’s body, which promotes more antibiotic resistance since the dosages are not consistent. As the antibiotics pass through the livestock and people, they contaminate the water system. The antibiotic resistance today does not necessarily mean the end of antibiotics as long as

Widespread use of antibiotics has been very controversial in the media as well in the general population. Due to these controversies, it is very misunderstood to how antibiotics work leading to many patients in the hospital setting wanting to take them when it is not necessary or refusing to take when it is necessary for their survival. Some of this controversy is due to antibiotic resistance, which has spread an alarming rate in the 21st century (Walsh, 2000). Antibiotic resistance is the result of very strong bacteria or microbes that are resistant to the antibiotic prescribed and those microbes accumulate overtime by their survival, reproduction and transfer, leading to increased levels of antibiotic resistance.

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

The general populace of western civilization may believe that modern medicine is limitless and that numerous afflictions that are common can be easily resolved with the major strides medicine has taken in the past century. In the case of antibiotics, this couldn’t be farther from the truth and its use leaves a nasty prospect for the future. Antibiotics, the type of drug that is capable of killing harmful bacteria, is widely regarded as a simple gift from medical research and is expected to be prescribed for even the mildest of illnesses. However, the use of antibiotics has proved that it comes with a terrible byproduct: leftover bacteria that survives the drug and evolves strains that are resistant to the drugs the world currently

In an era where common people are perhaps more health-conscious than ever before, it is mainstream knowledge that meat treated with antibiotics and hormones may not be safe for consumption. Many chain restaurants, such as Chipotle, Chick-Fil-A, and now Subway, will only buy meat from non-antibiotic suppliers, in order to meet increasingly high consumer standards. However, less than fifty years ago, meat from antibiotic treated livestock was actually preferred. What triggered this change in the way consumers scrutinize their food? It can be largely attributed to the research of one Stanford biologist and former Commissioner of the FDA, Doctor Donald Kennedy. Through opening the medical community’s eyes to the potential dangers of antibiotic resistance, Donald Kennedy shed light on one of the most troubling phenomena of modern medicine. However, before he was a Harvard graduate and esteemed biologist, Kennedy was a child growing up like any other in a New York City stricken by the Great Depression.

The use of the healthcare system as a whole is largely determined by the cost incurred by the patient, as well as insurance companies within the healthcare system. As for combating the growth of antibiotic resistance, it might be beneficial to increase the cost of antibiotics so that they are used only when clinically appropriate. This, however, would lead to a decrease in access to patients who might actually need these forms of treatment and who are unable to afford them. Additionally, increasing the cost of treatment options may cause there to be a delay or abandonment of therapy. While neither of these options may be ideal to patients, and even the healthcare system as a whole, the consideration of their use may aid in lowering the prevalence of antibiotic resistance.

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).

The overuse of antibiotics is creating stronger germs; some bacteria is already resistant to antibiotics. Therefore, when bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, it is difficult and costly to treat that infection. The treat to a serious bacterial infection is a big threat to public health.

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).