Herd Immunity By Thomas Levenson Essay

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.

Since the introduction of penicillin to the public in 1942, antibiotics have gained widespread use throughout the world. The drug has allowed society to make advancements in medicine, increase an individual’s personal well-being, extend life expectancies, and stop and prevent infections. Antibiotics are one of the largest backbones to maintaining personal health in society today, yet there may be a day when we are no longer able to depend on antibiotics to fight infections. In the essay “Imagining the post antibiotic future”, Maryn McKenna establishes the importance of antibiotics to juxtapose how devastating life would be without them.

The superbug poses a huge threat to society in many ways and it raises many issues. How should the patient be handled? How many different types of antibiotics are too much for a person to retain? How can people living in poverty prevent the spread of bacteria? The rise of the superbug produces numerous questions surrounding the care of patients and the fast spread of the resistant bacteria. The way scientists and doctors treat and care for their patients should be top priority, but when the patient is either living in poverty or in an area with limited resources it becomes difficult. In many poor cultures the superbug is growing much faster because they don’t necessarily have the understanding to prevent the spread of bacteria. In places like India and Pakistan antibiotics can be bought readily at pharmacies without prescriptions. Because many people think antibiotics can cure anything they use them inappropriately, therefore creating an environment for the bacteria to grow resistant. This is a major issue in Southern Asia as the rise of superbugs is much faster here than other countries. Reasons for this include the ease of access to antibiotics, the method of isolation for patients with

An article written by a physician named Eric Kodish, states the importance of making sure everyone is vaccinated. He mentions how the danger in rise of antibiotic

The article “The End of Antibiotics” discusses a 57 year old man that was dying and how doctors could only sit by while his condition deteriorated. This man was not shot or stabbed, he was infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria that was slowly killing him. He died months later after being bombarded with antibiotics in the form of capsules, tablets, and IVs (Begley par.1). This is the unsettling power that superbugs like this one has over modern day medicine. A superbug is a bacteria that has evolved its cellular structure to resist antibiotics. Dr. Richard Wenzel of the University of Iowa stated, “Only a few years after penicillin came into wide use with World War II, strains of staph had emerged

The misuse of penicillin and other antibiotics however is causing the growing problem of antibiotic resistance in which seemingly harmless infections turn to be deadly and dangerous. Antibiotics are not only casually used as treatments for bacterial infections, but are also used in agriculture and veterinary medicine, creating controversy on the proper uses of antibiotics. As advancements in the medical fields proved to be beneficial for a short period of time, today the misuse of these innovations are creating more and more problems that have proven to be dangerous to the accustomed health of the global population. Antibiotics were not always considered to be a superficial medication and, in fact, have been naturally used for millions of years, like with ants and their symbiosis with antibiotic producing fungi. Humans do not fully realize the value that antibiotics have brought to the population and do not take measures to preserve their use. In contrast, humans take for advantage the natural benefits that is given to them to overly benefit themselves, such as while creating revenue through mass production despite warning from scientists. This selfish misuse leads to consequences in which the future will have to provide solutions for, and perhaps even follow in the ants’ footsteps.

It is hard for us to imagine living a country before modern medicine. Just over one hundred years ago, nearly nine out of every 1,000 women who gave birth died from complications, roughly 40 percent from bacterial infections (CDC, 1999). In some U.S. cities and townships as many as 30 percent of infants passed away before they could celebrate their first birthday (Ibid). About one in every nine individuals who contracted a serious skin infection ended up being killed by it, even from something as trivial as an abrasion or a bug bite (Ibid). Pneumonia killed 30 percent of those who came down with it; and meningitis had a kill rate of 70 percent (Editorial Board, 2014). Surgical procedures were shoddy and often resulted in mortality due to bacterial infection (Ibid). However, the landscape was dramatically changed by the development and implementation of a few major medical breakthroughs: improvements in public health, vaccines, and antibiotics (PCAST, 2014). Over the past hundred years, deaths from infectious diseases declined incredibly and contributed to a substantial increase in life expectancy. Antibiotics, especially, have preserved millions upon millions of lives (Ibid).

Imagine a time the single common cold can wipe out the entire human race. No medicine can prevent a population from being wiped out and no one is safe from it. This may become a possible reality but only if we respect antibiotics and use them only when they are prescribed when it is necessary it can be stopped. In America we over medicate our children so much that our next generation could become immune to antibiotics.

Summary: The article “Kids’ Drug- Resistant Bacteria Blamed on Farm Antibiotic Use” states that kid’s health is suffering from an antibiotic that is use in farm animals. Kids are infected by bacteria and treatment is difficult with the antibiotics that used in farm animals. If human get infected by this bacteria, antibiotics is not going to work while treatment because bacteria became more advance and that antibiotic is not going to work. Kids can expose to drug resistant bacteria in different way. Children can get infected by these bacteria by contact with animals which is infected by these bacteria and by eating food that is contaminated by bacteria. Most of the time people who get infected by these bacteria don’t get ill if they get ill

Widespread use of antibiotics has been very controversial in the media as well in the general population. Due to these controversies, it is very misunderstood to how antibiotics work leading to many patients in the hospital setting wanting to take them when it is not necessary or refusing to take when it is necessary for their survival. Some of this controversy is due to antibiotic resistance, which has spread an alarming rate in the 21st century (Walsh, 2000). Antibiotic resistance is the result of very strong bacteria or microbes that are resistant to the antibiotic prescribed and those microbes accumulate overtime by their survival, reproduction and transfer, leading to increased levels of antibiotic resistance.

Prophylactic antibiotics are “using antibiotics to guard against or prevent the spread or occurrence of disease or infection.” This is a paradoxical façade presented to us by the majority of the medical world, the cattle and animal agriculture industry, and the fortune 500 companies (Prophylaxis). Prophylactic antibiotics kill tens of thousands of people every year; approximately 23,000 people from last year alone had prophylactic antibiotic related deaths, and are suspected to significantly help the progression of superbugs (Threat Report 2013). Superbugs, or antibiotic-resistant bacteria, are one of the very likely results of prophylactic antibiotics, superbugs are a quiet crisis that people of the world should be aware of, considering

Department of Health and Human Services 2013). The dependency of antibiotics can also be reflected by the over consumption of antibiotics in pediatric care. Patients in the pediatric care unit are also being overprescribed antibiotics at a much higher rate, “a study showed that doctors prescribe antibiotics 62% of the time if they perceive parents expect them and 7% of the time if they feel parents do not expect them.” (H, Brook et. Al. 1999). Antibiotics are meant to heal patients however when misused by the population, ”antibiotic-resistance mostly happens in the general community.” (World Health Organization 2013). The view that antibiotics act is an antidote for anything that causes illness is a dangerous perception. This problem begs for a program that can regulate the impulse to give into antibiotics.

The general populace of western civilization may believe that modern medicine is limitless and that numerous afflictions that are common can be easily resolved with the major strides medicine has taken in the past century. In the case of antibiotics, this couldn’t be farther from the truth and its use leaves a nasty prospect for the future. Antibiotics, the type of drug that is capable of killing harmful bacteria, is widely regarded as a simple gift from medical research and is expected to be prescribed for even the mildest of illnesses. However, the use of antibiotics has proved that it comes with a terrible byproduct: leftover bacteria that survives the drug and evolves strains that are resistant to the drugs the world currently

The book, Missing Microbes, by Martin J. Blaser, MD, was a very different read, then our other book, The Creative Destruction of Medicine, by Eric Topol, MD. In this book Dr. Blaser discusses the overuse of antibiotics and how it is affecting the United States. The United States has had a major increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases and Dr. Blaser explains the reasoning. The advancement of medicine and the increase use seems to be causing more harm than good in today’s society. Dr. Blaser discusses how the use of antibiotics and drugs to treat different illnesses may also be causing long-term effects on people’s lives. Dr. Blaser believes that our missing microbes may have something to do with main chronic diseases such as: allergies, asthma, cancers, diabetes, and obesity. These are the main diseases causing havoc on our population today affecting all of our families in some form or fashion. Dr. Blaser backs his theory by providing evidence and facts to prove his theory. The belief of Dr. Blaser based on this book could cause harm to some of us who are trying to be allied health professionals, not only in the future but also now. The effects has even trickled into agriculture with the animals being pumped with antibiotics and steroids to increase their size, which we ingest and get the effects of those drugs also.

Since penicillin and other antibiotics are ubiquitous in the market for people and companies to purchase, the chances of misusing them increase as a result. The two major factors that contribute to antibiotic resistance are through agricultural and medical use, respectively. Therefore, we should consider different arguments and identify the main cause of the problem before implementing any actions to resolve this challenging issue. In this inquiry and exploration paper, I am trying to explore who is responsible for this health crisis and what can be done to alleviate the impacts this issue has on our