Antibiotic Resistance By Holden Wright

In the last decade, the number of prescriptions for antibiotics has increases. Even though, antibiotics are helpful, an excess amount of antibiotics can be dangerous. Quite often antibiotics are wrongly prescribed to cure viruses when they are meant to target bacteria. Antibiotics are a type of medicine that is prone to kill microorganisms, or bacteria. By examining the PBS documentary Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria and the article “U.S. government taps GlaxoSmithKline for New Antibiotics” by Ben Hirschler as well as a few other articles can help depict the problem that is of doctors prescribing antibiotics wrongly or excessively, which can led to becoming harmful to the body.

One big factor in the resistance bacteria show towards antibiotics is antibiotic concentration. Usually, if large amounts of an antibiotic are attacking a bacteria it will stop the multiplication process and even kill it off, but if there is small amounts of antibiotic it will allow the bacteria to continue to spread. You can find many bacteria in a jelly-like biofilm which provides a shield to them.

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 misuse of antibiotics has the potential to set society back in time to the dark ages. It is time to end the careless use of these valuable antimicrobial that so many take for granted. Antibiotic resistance continues to expand and evolve and solutions to this epidemic need to implemented. By establishing stewardships, educational programs, and restrictions it teaches the severity of this issue and action that must be taken in order to decrease resistance. Antibiotic resistance is a multifactorial issue. Introducing preventative measures in hospitals will be most effective in reducing resistance, as well as eliminating the trend of misusing antibiotics.

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.

Antibiotic development is one of the modern marvels of medicine. This is the first external tool that people have to fight against bacterial infections. The first drug developed was Penicillin. This medication is so effective that it is still used today. From its structure, every other antibacterial drug was developed. Today, there are hundreds of options available for treating infections. Unfortunately, this has had significant ramifications on the development of resistance to these medications. As the infections continue to learn and evolve, it is important that people educate themselves on what this means and the impacts it has.

An increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria has been currently progressing and researchers are beginning to link the causes to the overuse of antibiotics. Studies of antibiotic overuse are few and as a result concrete information on antibiotic use in the U.S. is lacking. The problem with the low studies of antibiotics is that a full research on antibiotic prescription in the U.S. has not been created and a definite plan cannot be obtained. This paper covers the analysis on the information from five different sources to identify major constituents of the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics and provides possible steps to reduce antibiotic overuse.

Antibiotic resistance has evolved as a result of the interactions between bacteria and antibiotic after an antibiotic exposure. Bacterial species are capable of adapting to new antibiotic as simply as they adapt to new environments due to their amazing genomic plasticity. This in turn results antibiotic resistance to be very dynamic and unpredictable. “Every year, almost 100,000 Americans die from antibiotic-resistant infections acquired from hospitals, largely because of the reduced effectiveness of existing drugs, due to the development and propagation of drug resistance

The evolution of resistance is clearly driven by the irrational use of antibiotics which threatens the

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).

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 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 not new. Since the 1940s, bacteria has adapted to many of the preventative measures that have been put in place. Antibiotic resistance is occurring because of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in our society. Antibiotics being used in the health department to treat minor issues and viral infections are a big cause. In the U.S., “As much as half of all antibiotics used in clinics and hospitals are either unneeded or patients are getting the wrong drugs to treat their infections” (from Dr. Arjun Srinivasan associate director of the US centres for Disease Control and Prevention).

The question of antibiotic resistance is a growing phenomenon in contemporary society and modern medicine; it pertains to pathogenic organisms and is one of the most eminent issues of public health in the twenty-first century. Though resistant genes are ancient, its increasing prevalence poses a threat. It demands a greater need for antibiotic therapies. New resistance mechanisms may spread globally and limit our ability to treat disease and lead to a giant hole in the pillars of modern medicine.

Since the beginning of the antibiotic error in the mid 20th century, antimicrobial resistance has been recognized. The increased use of antimicrobial agents in the recent years has resulted in the development of resistance to these drugs. Clinical threats have however been minimized by the availability of newer agents (Bonomo & Tolmasky 2007). The World Health Organization (WHO) defines antimicrobial resistance as the resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial medicine to which it was previously sensitive (WHO 2012). A variety of resistance mechanisms have been developed by bacteria to counter the introduction of successive classes of antibiotics. This has lead to heightened interest in the study of antimicrobial