Antibiotic Resistance As A Worldwide Health Risk Essay

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

In this brief, the reader will see the pros and cons in antibiotic livestock. They will see commonly misunderstandings about antibiotics and facts. Throughout the paper the reader will see what long term and short term problems and benefits in livestock. In this research paper it will be covering antibiotics resistance and also how antibiotics it has changed the face of medicine.

Antibiotic use in animals has recently captured the attention of various professionals as the blatant, adverse effects have become increasingly prevalent. Agricultural manufacturers carelessly inject livestock with antibiotics in order to maximize their weight gain by minimizing the amount of energy consumed in fighting illnesses. This broad use of antibiotics in food-producing animals has contributed to the emergence and distribution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, resulting in either mild or fatal illnesses. To put the severity of this issue in perspective, legislators must realize that 1 in 5 antibiotic-resistant infections are caused by bacteria from food and animals. Although antibiotic use in animals is not the sole culprit of the

The documentary Resistance explains how using antibiotics on livestock enables farmers to house animals in deplorable conditions and maintain their health efficiently. Although high heat kills them, the superbugs spread from animals to people through raw or undercooked meat. This constant treatment of antibiotics allows for the bacteria to develop a way around the antibiotics, making it more difficult for hospitals to treat

Some other readers would swear by the benefits of antibiotics and may have no interest in giving up its consumption. According to Tamara Thompson, the editor of the book “Superbugs”, “The overuse and misuse of antibiotics in humans and livestock is one key factor in the development of so called superbugs, […]. This happens when people take antibiotics unnecessarily, or when they begin antibiotic treatment but do not finish all of their medicine” (Superbugs 8). By making this statement, Tamara without a doubt agrees that the abuse and misuse of antibiotics in humans and livestock is the root of the problem. Modern technology has given rise to the use of antibiotics in farmlands to protect crops from pathogenic invasion.

In recent years, Americans have been blaming antibiotics used in animals to be processed for food for many of the growing number of health problems in developed countries. Fast food restaurants are making movements to remove antibiotic treated meats from their menus. This movement is causing quite the stir in consumers and livestock producers alike. Do the antibiotics used in beef really contribute to antibiotic resistant diseases? Should antibiotics be outlawed in the use of farm animals? The eradication of antibiotic use in America’s beef industry is not feasible due to its usage in the treatment and control of deadly or discomforting diseases.

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.

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).

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.

One environment where bacteria are regularly exposed to antibiotics is in large livestock operations, where producers very often treat their cows and other animals with drugs to prevent epidemics in the unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, which are common in the livestock industry. The simple reason for this is that in the short term it is cheaper to drug up the animals with antibiotics than to keep a clean living environment for them. Another big reason for these producers to drug up the animals is the fact that feeding antibiotics to the livestock makes for larger animals. The problem occurs when bacteria in these animals survive the bombardment of antibiotics, and some always do, the

It seems that human can start to overcome most of diseases by using antibiotics without any bad influence. But as time goes by, the side effects show up. The excessive use of antibiotics brings the disadvantages and problems with the heaps of advantages simultaneously. Antibiotics are not only exacerbating the health risk of animals, and human beings, but also exacerbating the environmental impairment. The antibiotics are used to treat and prevent diseases in human beings and animals’ medicine, but there are many kinds of risks deriving from the antibiotics therapies, which include the development and spread of resistant bacteria strains and environmental contamination; besides, the micro-biotic organism is also a big issue we need to concern about.

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).

The antibiotic resistance crisis will cause a lot of issues with human development and the health of humanity, to where 80,000 people can die from a single antimicrobial resistance outbreak (3). The reason why this crisis is a

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