Antibiotic Resistance Research Paper

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

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Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria changes and reduces the effectiveness of an antibiotic. Using the wrong antibiotic for disease-causing bacteria can end in an overuse of that antibiotic and promotes antibiotic-resistance. Information gathered by the Bash the Bug Project can be used to find the correct antibiotic to fight certain disease-causing bacteria. Therefore, limiting bacteria’s opportunity to develop antibiotic-resistance. This is important to the general public because antibiotic-resistant bacterium is more difficult to kill, requires a more expensive treatment, and is given more of an opportunity to spread. While antibiotic resistance cannot be completely stopped, prescribing the correct antibiotic can greatly slow the spread of antibiotic resistance infections. The Bash the Bug project will then allow more time for newer drugs that can fight antibiotic resistant bacteria that are already in

Dr. Martin Blaser, author of Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics is Fueling Our Modern Plagues, paints antibiotics as a negative force in the world that causes disease. Dr. Blaser has studied the role of bacteria in human disease for more than thirty years at Vanderbilt University, and has experience as the director of the Human Microbiome Project at New York University. He also works with the National Institute of Health on infectious diseases. Meanwhile, Dr. David Shlaes, author of Antibiotics: The Perfect Storm, focuses on the drugs’ ability to cure disease. Dr. Shlaes has worked for 30 years in anti-infective academia, industry, and consulting. He served as Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University for five years, and then moved to industry, where he became vice president of Infectious Diseases at Wyeth Research. Later, he took a position as executive vice president of research and development at Idenix Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and formed his own consulting company. He now works predominantly with biotech companies and venture capital firms in their evaluation of anti-infective companies. While they take different approaches, the two doctors concur that antibiotic resistance is a major problem and that society needs to find ways to slow it down. One way to slow down the spread of resistant bacteria is finding ways to ensure

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

The development of antibiotics was an important advancement in 20th century medicine. Previously deadly infectious diseases are now routinely treated with antibiotics. Moreover, for modern-day medical procedures such as chemotherapy treatment to be successful, antibiotic use is necessary. For these reasons, the prospect of bacteria developing widespread resistance to antibiotics is a major concern as it would render many modern-day medical therapies unviable.

Antibiotics are commonly used to treat bacterial infections in both humans and animals however the overuse and inappropriate prescription of antibiotics has caused a worldwide concern in antibiotic resistance (FDA, 2015). Antibiotic resistance is when bacteria is able to evolve in such a way enabling the bacteria to survive in the conditions it is in, consequently causing antibiotics being ineffective to the patient (CDC, 2013). Due to this issue implementations and actions have been taken to aid in the reduction of antibiotic resistance.

The current discovery of growing antibiotic resistant bacteria has been linked to the public’s unaware overuse of antibiotics and changing rates of antibiotic prescription. Many people in the U.S. are already knowledgeable that antibiotics are used to help fight against disease or infections, but the mass population is blind to the negative drawbacks of overusing the antibiotics. The research “ Study shows for antibiotic overuse” by Mike Stobbe (2013) provides a clear explanation of the drawback provided by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stating that antibiotic resistant bacteria are produced, “when antibiotics are not used long enough or are taken for the wrong reasons, allowing

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.

According the theory of evolution it predicted that bacteria would eventually develop some type of resistance to combat the antibiotics. Doctors and scientists have several possibilities on how to stop or slow down the bacteria resisting antibiotics. Firstly, doctors shouldn’t use antibiotics to treat viral infections. This is because antibiotics fight off bacterial infections not don’t kill virus, but if you use antibiotics for a viral infection the virus won’t be affected, the doctor simply introduced a way that allows for the bacteria to develop resistance to the antibiotics. A different approach includes a different type of treatment plan for bacterial infection. For example, if an infections needs to be controlled with antibiotics then it is recommended that high dosages over a shorter period of time is less likely to create bacteria that can’t be treated with antibiotics. This is recommended, because “any bacteria that survive a mild dose are likely to be somewhat resistant” which can create further problems for that patient. Finally, when treating a particularly strong bacterial infection it is better to use a combination of drugs instead just increasing the strength of the antibiotics. One of the reasons this could combat the evolving bacteria is to “Giving a stronger dose of the same antibiotic just increases the strength of the same selective pressure — and may even cause the evolution of a "super-resistant" strain”. By introducing a completely new drug the bacteria will not only better assist in fighting that strain, but also reduce the risk of creating bacteria that is immune to certain types of antibiotics. Understanding and implementing ways to slow down this process will greatly benefit the world, and hopefully will stop the development of resistance

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).

Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem that must be addressed on a clinical, economical, and research level. According to the antimicrobial resistance AMR, by 2050 “10 million more people would be expected to die every year than would be the case if resistance was kept to today’s level”. Due to over exposure do antibiotics bacterial pathogens have developed both defenses and offenses against antibiotics. These mechanisms provide bacteria to survive antibiotic level that human bodies cannot tolerate. In order to combat this problem two main avenues exist. The first option is big pharmaceutical companies and startup biotechnology companies, backed by venture capitalism, can develop new antibiotics. This process however is not profitable

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 increased population of the world along with availability of global transport means resulted in the advancement of critical health situations that the current treatments cannot manage efficiently (Abdulamir 1). The World Economic Forum (WEF) concludes that, “We live in a bacterial world where we will never be able to stay ahead of the mutation curve. A test of our resilience is how far behind the curve we allow ourselves to fall” (Spellberg, et al.). Antibiotic resistance is truly driven by microbial exposure to all antibiotics whether they are appropriately prescribed or not (Spellberg, et al.). For example, antibiotic resistance was recently discovered among bacteria found in underground caves that had been isolated from the planet’s surface for four million years and was even found in synthetic antibiotics that were nonexistent on earth until the 20th century (Spellberg, et al.). As the cave example shows, antibiotic-resistant infections would prevail even if all antibiotic use was restricted and appropriate, so just restricting prescriptions alone will not suffice. Any more of the typical antibiotics found and even the new antimicrobials currently helping will not effectively fight resistance, for they will eventually be overpowered by the growth of resistance (Roemhild, et al. 945). By considering the evolution

Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest threats to global health, Food security and development.