Antibiotic Resistance Research Paper

Modern-day advances have allowed scientists to develop methods to control pathogens. The more common methods include the use of antiseptics, antibiotics, and vaccines. By definition, antiseptics are chemicals used to kill pathogens. A few widespread antiseptics include soap, vinegar, and rubbing alcohol. Antiseptics are primarily used for the external destruction of pathogens, while antibiotics and vaccines target internal pathogens. Nevertheless, there are and can be difficulties concerning the use of antibiotics. “As antibiotic use has become more common, antibiotic-resistant bacteria have evolved.” This resistance due to evolution is called antibiotic resistance. It results in the antibiotics having no effect whatsoever on the bacteria, rendering the antibiotics useless. When antibiotic resistance occurs, scientists must resume their search to create a new medicine to can kill the mutant bacteria.

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

With all of our modern advances, it seems somewhat strange that chronic health problems have become so commonplace. When antibiotics were discovered, they predicted the end of disease. Instead, we now have a world full of frightening antibiotic resistant infections.

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 world has seen many changes throughout its time. From the dinosaurs, to people habiting earth, the population growing rapidly, and the invention of medicine, the earth has gone through a lot. Civilization has always found ways to survive, natural disasters, plagues, wars, and attacks. Somehow the human race has always come out on top. A great, eye opening discovery for the world has been antibiotics. With these new found drugs the population has been able to survive sicknesses and live decades longer, than the ones that came before. Imagine dying from a simple cold because of no medicine. Only with all great things, there is always the negative. Society seems to rely on the fast and easy way out, and that is what antibiotics allow. Unfortunately,

Studies show that twenty-three thousand out of two million with infection dies because antibiotic resistance(Center for Disease Control). What exactly is antibiotic resistance and how did bacterias become resistant

Antibiotic resistance is a major topic talked about today in the scientific and medical communities because of the increased rate it is occurring. Antibiotics are medicines used to treat foreign bacteria in the body. In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic, penicillin, when testing the bacteria pathogen Staphylococcus aureus; the mold in his lab was capable of killing bacteria. Taking too many antibiotics can destroy the microbes in the gut, which help fight the bacteria in the first place. When bacteria changes DNA in the cell, the newly formed bacteria infection is now resistant to the former antibiotic treatments used previously ("Facts about Antibiotic Resistance" 2016). Once the bacteria cannot be inhibited by the antibiotic,

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), “Antibiotic resistance is the ability of microbes to resist the effects of drugs – that is, the germs are not killed, and their growth is not stopped. Although some people are at greater risk than others, no one can completely avoid the risk of antibiotic-resistant infections” (“About Antimicrobial Resistance”). Antibiotic resistance has a higher chance of occurring with the more antibiotics taken, as the body adapts more and more each time. The CDC has collected data across the country, and has concluded that the estimated number of deaths caused by antibiotic resistance is 23,000, and that the number of illnesses is slightly higher than 2 million (“About Antimicrobial Resistance”). Already antibiotic resistance has affected millions of lives, and will continue to affect many more until antibiotic overuse is stopped

The root of this problem lies in what Charles Darwin called the “survival of the fittest” in which organisms eventually adapt and evolve in response to their environment and its impending threats in order to survive. Bacteria is now doing this in response to antibiotics, which are purposed to kill bacteria so as to eliminate infections and diseases. However, now more and more bacteria are evolving to form antibiotic-resistant strains that there are no or very expensive antibiotics or treatments for yet, even if they were once easily treated diseases. Often this is a result of overuse or improper use of antibiotics by both medical professionals and patients. Overuse, such as attempting to use antibiotics for infections that do not warrant them, such as the common cold, allows existing bacteria to devise mechanisms such as “neutralizing” antibiotics, removing antibiotics, adapting their structure so as to become impenetrable to the antibiotics, or improving upon their genetics. Improper use of bacteria, such as beginning an antibiotic, but failing to use it to completion, also allows bacteria to do the

With antibiotic resistance escalating, it is clear that there needs to be more of an emphasis on the development and testing of new treatments to combat resistance. However, the argument over whether or not antibiotic development should be promoted or squashed remains in the healthcare community.

In this paper, I address some major ethical issues associated with the ineffective use of Antibiotics which contributes to Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), as Antimicrobial resistance is a direct consequence of not considering several bioethical factors associated with proper use of antibiotics since its advent. The Antimicrobial resistance is a result of ceaseless selection pressure over bacterial population during several generations from human application of antibiotics through overuse, underuse and misuse. In the first section, I have discussed why AMR currently has become one of the major public health concerns and the impacts of the AMR on global public health should not merely be viewed as a technical or medical problem but as a distinct

Predicting the duration for development of antibiotic resistance against an antibiotic by an isolated colony of bacteria, using computer simulated “natural” selection

In the past, most infections could be treated with simple antibiotics, leading to a higher chance of recovery and increased rate of survival. Now, infections are more severe and take too many lives, something that is easily avoidable by not permitting the bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics. Another problem the world faces is that medication is not being developed quickly enough to fight antibiotic-resistant strains. According to Spellberg et al., “antibiotic development has slowed dramatically over the past 25 years” (2008, para. 13). Without the ability to develop new drugs to counteract current antibiotic-resistant bacteria, more serious strains and increased rates of infection result. This makes the simplest, most cost effective form of bacterial treatment obsolete. As a result of antibiotic-resistant bacteria multiplying quickly, this will no doubt increase the number of deaths due to infection, increase pressure for new medicine, and no doubt increase health care costs.

The use of antibiotics dates from the 1920s and, for the first time in history, the human race has a chance to win in the war against bacterial disease. Unfortunately, it is unknown if humans will ever win the battle against disease because of antibiotic resistant strains. Antibiotics are overprescribed and with the overuse, bacteria are becoming resistant at a rapid rate. Without antibiotics bacteria would still mutate but the mutations would not help the bacteria. With antibiotics the bacteria do have an advantage when they mutate. Through natural selection the resistant strains are able to survive and spread while the antibiotics kill the nonresistant strains. It is important to understand that overuse is not causing bacteria to mutate but rather is increasing the rate of resistance. Behaviors such as doctors prescribing antibiotics to patients even when not necessary and farmers using antibiotics to make their farm animals bigger are the reason why antibiotic resistance is becoming a major problem. Antibiotics are prescribed to patients even when they are not necessary; this is because when people get sick, they seek immediate recovery and often demand an antibiotic even if they are suffering from a virus, which cannot be cured with an antibiotic. Antibiotics do not cure viruses, but doctors prescribe them for the placebo effect so patients think they feel better. Antibiotics are also misused on farms where they are used to not only prevent and cure illness but to also

This article is about the determination of Antibiotic resistance that relies on the fitness effects of resistance elements in the absence of antibiotics. Angst and Hall tentatively developed rifampicin-resistant and delicate Escherichia coli in drug-free environment, before measuring the impacts of new resistance components on fitness in antibiotic free conditions. Streptomycin resistance changes had little fitness impacts in rifampicin-resistant genotypes that had adjusts to antibiotic free environment , contrasted with the same genotypes without acclimatization. They watched a comparative impact when resistance was encoded by a plasmid. Antibiotic sensitive microorganisms that acclimated to the same conditions indicated