Legislation On Antibiotics

The main threat for the overuse of antibiotics are the creation of antibiotic resistant microbes, or more commonly called superbugs. Antibiotics are used to kill mass amounts of bacteria, but they cannot kill all of them. Some bacteria still survive, so they will reproduce and pass their genes down to their offspring. The offspring will now have their parents genes, which includes being resistant to a certain type of antibiotic. Tom Philpott, an award winning writer about food politics, explained, “And the worst part is that antibiotics use in factory farms is not mostly matter of keeping animals healthy.” Philpott is saying farmers mostly use antibiotics to promote faster growth and not to treat sickness. American Cyanamid, a pharmaceutical company, tested animals with vitamin B12 to see if they grew faster. The animals saw significant weight gain, and more experiments were tested. What American Cyanamid found was the antibiotic in vitamin B12 was actually causing the weight gain. This discovery led to mass amounts of antibiotics being used in animals. In 1950, before the discovery, there were 1.6 million chicken farms raising a total of about 560 million chickens. 28 years later, 3 billion chickens were being hatched in about 31,000 large farms (Philpott). The discovery led to mass expansion of farms, because animals were able to grow faster and bigger, so farms took advantage. Factory farms have been overusing

When you hear the word antibiotic, what do you think? It’s what all the doctors give us, so it has to be safe, right? What if I were to tell you that antibiotics could be the reason for more sickness, would you believe me? No, antibiotics themselves are not making us sick, their effect on bacteria and disease is what is. Antibiotics are used to cure disease, control symptoms, and prevent anything from happening in the first place. But, in the agricultural society, antibiotics are often used to get quicker growth and more efficient weight gain of their livestock. This is where the antibiotic controversy stems from. Some feel that antibiotic use in food animals is a major cause for antibiotic resistance, and should there for stop being used for unnecessary purposes. Whereas the other end, more neutral side, claims that regulated necessary antibiotics must be used to ensure the health of the animals and consumers.

As for antibiotics, the once called miracle drug that saves millions of lives, too much causes what’s called “superbugs.” Basically incurable infections. I’ve been interested in the problem of superbugs for a long time and this is a great opportunity to research about it and spread the information. It’s important to understand what superbugs are and how they work because they’re a present and ongoing problem and everyone here might just be affected by them. So in the next few minutes, I’ll talk about what superbugs are, and how the food we all eat contributes to creating these dangerous foes.

Antibiotics differ from many other drugs in the fact that the treatment is for a very short time compared to drugs used to treat hypertension, diabetes, Parkinson’s, or cancer. The latter disorders have in common that the treatment, from the moment of diagnosis, is life-long. The treatment period for antibiotics is only a few weeks, making the return of investment poor. Increasing demands of authorities in both development and marketing phase and in legislation increase the costs of new antibiotics.[1] [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.

For example, you may have heard of the woman in Reno this January who died to a “nightmare superbug” because the infection could not be cured by every available antibiotic in the United States (Nevada Public Radio, 17 January 2017, para. 3). On the Infectious Diseases Society of America website was the story of how a 19-year-old college student, Meredith Littlejohn, died to a superbug after spending time in an intensive care unit. (Infectious Diseases Society of America, n.d., para. 1-3). These are only two of thousands who die every year. And so clearly our misuse and overuse of antibiotics have created very serious, negative outcomes.

“The Antibiotic Resistance Crisis” is an article on the National Center for Biotechology Information's website and consequently follows many of the conventions expected of an online article. Before the main body of text is even shown, the author's name is written and link to further information about the author is provided. This allows the reader to research what the author has published before and gain a better appreciation of their past work. The article itself is single-columned and divided into a a series of headings and subheadings that help organize and divide the text into smaller pieces. These pieces relate to the overall topic of how the overuse and misuse of antibiotics over the past century has led to the increasing ineffectiveness of antibiotics against various strains of bacteria. Because the article is published by a scientific organization, it is a fairly

Antibiotics are being overused. I think that we need to stop overprescribing antibiotics because they have a negative overall effect. 50% of all antibiotic prescriptions written each year in the US are not needed, or are not prescribed appropriately. The more we rely on the antibiotics the more resistant the bacteria

While this may be true in some instances, it is a very dangerous approach to antibiotic use because of the many negative effects. As stated earlier, the term “antibiotic” translates to “against life” because antibiotics are used to kill living organisms; therefore, if antibiotics are used irresponsibly and in large quantities, they can kill humans. Further, the adverse effects caused by antibiotics may have negative consequences. For example, antibiotics eliminate benign bacteria in the human colon, which allows opportunistic bacteria to take over (Sachs 191). As previously stated, this may cause many complications such as Clostridium difficile infections, diarrhea, and fatal colon inflammation (Surawicz par.1,3). C. difficile is responsible for 29,000 deaths a year (Lessa, et. al. par. 18). That number is too great to overlook. Additionally, Antibiotics can cause Klebsiella, a bacteria that has a multidrug resistant strain (Johnson 52). Furthermore, widespread antibiotic use will not cure every illness. Despite forty percent of people believing that antibiotics can cure viral infections, antibiotics are only effective against bacterial infections (“Entrenched” par. 5). Lastly, widespread antibiotic use leads to antibiotic resistance. Every year resistant bacteria are the cause of two million infections in the United States (Alic par. 2). If

Antibiotics have been the answer to many bacterial infections for the past 70 years (Antibiotic/ Antimicrobial Resistance). Antibiotics are “medicines used to treat infections or diseases caused by bacteria” (“What are Antibiotics?”). Antibiotics were prescribed to cure many diseases. Doctors prescribed many antibiotics during World War II. World War II was the start of the antibiotic era. Just when antibiotics were being greatly produced, bacteria started to evolve and became resistant to these medicines. What is antibiotic resistance? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Antibiotic resistance occurs when an antibiotic has lost its ability to effectively control or kill bacterial growth” (“General Background”). Improper use of antibiotics causes antibiotic resistance and has many effects associated with it. People may be drug abusers and this can cause resistance in the body. Some people will only take antibiotics because they believe it is the only way they will get better. When a person uses drugs to get rid of a sickness they may start to overcompensate, but when they do, the drug may have less of an effect because the body has become so used to the drugs medicine. That is because the bacteria has found a way to avoid the effects of the antibiotic.

Antibiotics are medicines used to treat diseases or infections caused by bacteria, such as: upper and lower respiratory tract infections. They are often called the “life savers” of medications, amongst individuals of today’s society. Antibiotics (penicillin) were first discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1929, but it was in the beginning of the 1940’s that the true potential was recognized. Being that our society feel that antibiotics are the “go to” medication for every illness, the medication has become overused and abused by medical professionals in healthcare facilities, as well as patients. Due to the overuse and abuse of antibiotics a lot of them are no

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 abuse of antibiotics in animal husbandry is quickly gaining speed as a potent problem in the world, and because of the overuse, antibiotic resistance is a terrifying prospect that is overwhelming doctors as they try to combat resistant bacteria; the future of the world depends on the way the resistant bacteria is handled, and it needs to be evaluated from the lowest level it can be: the animals. An overwhelming number of the antibiotics are being given to food producing animals, even when they are not necessary. The FDA recognizes that the overuse of antibiotics could lead to resistance, but they continue to pass lax policies; the FDA is being surpassed by other organizations that are fighting to combat the growing problem, but mandatory laws are yet to be passed in the US. Because of this hesitancy to pass compulsory laws, due to competing government initiatives, this overuse of antibiotics is adding to the problem of antibiotics resistance by allowing the bacteria to develop resistance from overexposure. Animals are being abused because antibiotics are being misused, and animals have dose after dose forced on them, despite not needing them, because of the increased efficiency of growth in these meat producing animals. A major shift is needed in the culture of animal husbandry to put an end to this overuse of antibiotics; mandatory laws must be passed outlawing antibiotics that are medically suitable for humans from farms, requiring strict monitoring, and no longer

Bacteria have been plaguing mankind throughout all of recorded history, from the medieval bubonic plague to the leprosy epidemic, but our greatest bacterial nightmare is knocking on the door of the 21st century. Antibiotic resistance. Our improper and ubiquitous use of antibiotics has caused bacteria to develop resistance against our synthetic poison, enabling bacteria to survive, thrive, and reek havoc amongst humans and animals alike. The improper use of antibiotics foreshadows a future of super bacteria that will be incurable by any medicine that has been developed, or will ever be develop. It will be a future full of fear and death. The improper usage of antibiotics must be identified and addressed before it is too late.

“A century ago, the top three causes of death were infectious diseases. More than half of all people dying in the United States died because of germs. Today, they account for a few percent of deaths at most. We owe much of that, of course, to antibiotics,” states Aaron Carroll a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine (Carroll). Now, once easily treated bacterial infections are increasingly difficult to treat and rid from a patient’s system because antibiotics can no longer effectively treat some common diseases. Antibiotics are overused and overprescribed; medical professionals use antibiotics to treat viral infections when they are intended for bacterial infections only. With consistent overuse, antibiotic