Antibiotic Resistance Crisis

The outlook on antibiotics has changed dermadicly since we have fist started using them. Antibiotics is a substance that is produced by a microorganism that can kill or prevent the growth of another microorganism. The major conflict that will be covered in the paper is antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics resistance

A couple times a year local and national mass media put the spotlight on problems connected to antibiotic overuse. Some people consider those problems to be real and serious, and others think that the discussed topics are nothing more than new “fashionable” subjects to talk about, distracting people from “real” problems, such as climbing gas prices or war expenses. Meanwhile, antibiotic overuse continues as a common practice among US doctors and agribusinesses for the last 20 years. The practice of antibiotic overuse has put patient’s health at risk, contributed to antibiotic resistance and increased bacterial mutation to a new, stronger level; as well as it hitting the economy with new costly expenses in health care. It is time to stop

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.

Flues, colds, and diseases flow in and out through all seasons of the year. The illnesses caused many patients to go to the doctors and to get help. In return, the patients will likely get antibiotics prescribed by the doctors. Antibiotics are drugs or a type of medicine that will prevent or inhibit bacteria which is causing the infection. Many people think that antibiotics can completely cure their infection by taking them, but many people do not realize the importance of antibiotic resistance and the evolution of bacteria.

Millions of lives are saved every single day because of antibiotics treating common infections, allowing organ transplants, as well extending the average lifespan by decades. About half of the emergency cases treated in the intensive care units in the video “Antibiotic Resistance—Catalyst” are suffering from bacterial infections as well as coming to terms that it is no longer treatable, because bacteria are rapidly becoming resistant to all the antibiotics we have. By overusing this incalculable medical resource, we are basically risking the loss the potency of antibiotics, which is a threat to the human race.

The development of antibiotic resistant strains are on the rise especially in developing countries and are creating a crisis in the effective treatment of infections.1,5

John Wesley is a 56 year old man who apart from taking warfarin for his chronic atrial fibrillation is not on any other medication. His International Normalised Ratio (INR) is monitored regularly so that it is around 2.5 (range 2.06-2.8). John goes to his GP with a lower urinary tract infection and is prescribed a 7 day course of cefixime, a 3rd generation cephalosporin. His GP tells John that he will need to come in the following week for a blood test for his INR.

Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem throughout the globe. Besides using antibiotics for medical use, they are being used in the agriculture industry. In animals, antibiotics are being used to treat diseases, but also to prevent diseases from occurring and to increase the growth of animals (Mehndiratta, 2014, p.340). In recent years, the evidence of farmers using antibiotics for non-traditional ways has sparked major controversy. In agriculture 90% of antibiotics are used for growth-promoting and prophylactic agents with the other 10% being used to treat diseases (Khachatourians, 1998, p.2). To understand why this occurs, we first must understand the genetic basis for antibiotic resistance and the occurrence of antibiotic resistance in selected organisms. By farmers doing this an increase in the number and types of microorganisms resistant to drugs, has increased public health problems. Finally, management options for reducing antibiotics in the environment have to occur. If farmers continue to use antibiotics for non-traditional uses, as humans we can be affected greatly not just by food supply, but by water runoff, the air, and even the soil. Also, more public health problems will occur.

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?

Have you ever had an infection before? Particularly, a bacterial infection. Millions of people are infected by means of bacteria per year in the United States alone (CDC 2017). At least two million of those residents are infected by bacteria that are resistant to the antibiotics that are currently on the market (CDC 2017). Bacterial infections are not the leading cause of mortality in the United States, but I believe that there is a need for a change in the way that the United States looks at antimicrobial research (CDC 2017). In this paper I will discuss the modes of antibacterial resistance, why pharmaceutical companies aren’t researching new antibiotics, and why this is an important global issue.

Antibiotics are used by millions of people every day, myself included. Their uses include a wide variety of circumstances like treating common colds or battling infections during surgeries. The versatility of the antibiotic also happens to be its greatest downfall. The overuse and misuse of these medications, as well as a lack of new drug development by the pharmaceutical industry contributes to the rapid growth of antibiotic resistance. The emergence of resistant bacteria occurring worldwide, endangers the efficacy of antibiotics. While the effects of these resistant bacteria may seem small, in 25 to 50 years the outcome could result in a “post-antibiotic era.” Moreover, many farmers and agriculturists advocate for the use of antibiotics

Antibiotic Resistance occurs when bacteria reformat themselves in order to become unaffected by the drugs or substances created to terminate them. They gain resistance to the drugs which causes the drugs to be ineffective of use and leading to more harm. Antibiotic Resistance commonly occurs within patients due to physicians misusing or overusing antibiotics. This creates a common resistance to patients and resulting in the constant creation for new antibiotics that would treat the bacteria. The main conflict generally evolves from medical stewardship where physicians have the responsibility to optimally heal their patients to their best efforts. However this is being neglected by misuse of antibiotics due to several reasons, including patients’ ignorance and fear of malpractice. The authors in the articles “Just give me the script: the scourge of antibiotic misuse and the threat to us all” written by Ranjana Srivastava, “Health-ignorant patients one of many problems exacerbating antibiotic resistance” written by C.L. Doherty, and “Ignorance about antibiotics propelling global ‘superbug’ crisis” written by Helen Branswell, all emphasizes on the topic by developing Ethos, Logos and Pathos towards 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).

Antibiotic resistance is found all over the world and has become a very serious problem in the treatment of disease. The 1995 US Office of Technology Assessment report attributed a cost of $1.3 billion (1992 dollars) per year for antibiotic-resistant infections due to six species of bacteria in US hospitals. While the real

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).