Bash The Bug Project: The Importance Of Citizen Science

Antibiotics are powerful very frequently used potential drugs in fighting bacterial infections worldwide, [1]. These agents saved millions of lives in the past fifty years in both hospital-based and outpatient settings. Inadequate measures to control the spreading of infections, overprescribing as well as inappropriate selection and dosing of antibiotics by healthcare providers, unfettered access to antimicrobials by public, failure to adhere to clinically desired treatment regimens are some of the driving force to spread of antibiotics resistance, [2]. In addition, lack of regulations to promote the rational use of antibiotics in humans, infection prevention and control are some of the other factors that lead to emergence of resistance to antibiotics, [3].

Antimicrobial resistant has been called one of the world's most pressing public health problems. Every time a person takes antibiotics, sensitive bacteria are killed, but resistant ones may be left to grow stronger and multiply. Although antibiotics can help treat bacterial infections, a possible side effect is that they can strengthen certain bacterial strains. Antibiotics are supposed to be used for bacterial infections, but are wrongly being used for both viral and bacterial infections. When we use antibiotics on viral infections, deadly bacteria multiplies and becomes stronger. We can fix this problem by using antibiotics for bacterial infections only.

Antibiotics-resistant organisms have become one of the most serious threats to public health, infecting over two million people and killing approximately 23,000 people annually.1 According to the CDC, “total inappropriate antibiotic use,” such as prescribing unnecessary antibiotics or giving the wrong dose or duration, makes up to 50% of all outpatient antibiotic use,2,3 and in 2009, the United States spent $10.7 billion on antibiotics, indicating that there is a lot of potential money to save.4

In the last fifty years, the most prominent and transformative medical advancement made was the discovery of antibiotics and disinfectants. On the contrary, with the uncovering of antibiotics came the repercussion of the progressively threatening antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria or ‘superbugs’ formed due to the lack of care from the people to follow through with simple safety procedures in order to entirely get rid of bacterial illnesses and infections. Appropriate precautions are necessary and expectedly need to be taken, in order to minimize and possibly prohibit the formation, continual growth and limit the strength of resistance in the antibiotic-resistant superbugs, and most importantly to preserve medical advancements

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.

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

Overtime, antibiotics have been favorable as well as negligent to society. Antibiotic usage is helpful to society because it kills and fights off bacteria in both humans and animals. With an increase in antibiotic usage, these bacteria have become resistant to certain drugs which reduce the chance of the bacteria being killed off and result in bacteria multiplying, causing increased harm to the infected. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2013), each year in the United States at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a result to these infections. Although multiple bacteria are antibiotic resistant, and those numbers will continue to rise, antibiotics should remain a staple in the treatment of diseases, as opposed to abandoning their use which will cause an increase in the prevalence of bacterial infections.

Ecosystem Restoration is the “process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed” (SER Primer, 2004). Citizen Science” is the collection and analysis of data relating to the natural world by members of the general public, typically as part of a collaborative project with professional scientists” http://nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/citizen-science/. Citizen Science is a unique project or academic and research method that helping the public, volunteers, and scientist solve environmental issues. I chose the Nation Geographic Society project. I chose the project of monitoring the Appalachian Mountains. This project wants hikers not only to climb the mountains but monitor the poor quality of air

This bacteria causes an estimate of 23000 deaths and 2 millions illness in the United States each year. Not only do they affect us but, they affect animal health, agriculture and, the economy. Potentially thousands of lives would be saved with the National Action Plan. with this plan it suggests that for the next 5 years it will help prevent major breakouts of the bacteria, and create new diagnostics, antibiotics, vaccines, and other therapeutics. With this plan the federal funding for reducing antibiotic resistant bacteria is more than 1.2 billion. National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and the

In today’s modern society, the use of antibiotics is becoming more and more prevalent. Due to the global population’s increased usage of medicines, some types of bacteria have developed antibiotic resistance, creating a race of superbugs. Superbugs are bacteria that are resistant to multiple types of antibiotics, and have the ability to survive and even multiply, despite antibiotic presence. This causes great danger to society as individuals infected with these bugs cannot be treated, as the antibiotics are made redundant. (State Government of Victoria, 2015) The looming threat of widespread antibiotic resistant bacteria raises the question,

Antibiotic resistance had been a crisis in the United States for many years now. According to the CDC, “up to 50% of the time, antibiotics are not optimally prescribed, often done so when not needed, [or with] incorrect dosing or duration” (CDC). More and more bacteria are becoming antibiotic resistant mostly due to incorrect amount and length of dosage, while sometimes, even the actual antibiotic is incorrectly given to the patient. Because of this, many strains of bacteria had become resistant to these antibiotics and thus, have infected more and more

This research will investigate whether antibiotics, as an effective treatment for bacterial diseases, have become inadequate and ineffectual and, if so, conclude whether the world may be on the precipice of a post-antibiotic era by determining if antibiotic resistance is on the rise in the 21st century.

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).

Citizen science is the collaboration of the scientific community directing volunteers in data collection efforts. In a citizen science program the scientist maintains a leadership position and directs all actions according to the scientific need. Citizen science relies on the individual’s, or groups, motivation to perform the required tasks. Citizen science programs are generally focused around data gathering. The volunteers must be trained in sound scientific practices in order to ensure the highest quality data possible. These programs allow for the scientific community to harvest larger quantities of data and allow the volunteers to become active members in the scientific community.