Superbug Is Good Or Bad

Hospitals in the United States do not have to report outbreaks to the government. However, according to the documentary the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention estimated that two million Americans are infected with resistance bacteria, which can result in about 23,000 Americans death each year. This is a hidden and silent epidemic with KPC found in hospitals in 44 states in the United States. In addition, there have been 32 confirmed cases this documentary in 14 countries with NDM-1 gene. The documentary should have explored what the U.S., India and other countries do differently or similarly in treating the superbug NDM-1. The US had in recent years signed a deal with GlaxoSmithKline worth $200 million on development and research of drug resistance antibiotics (Hirschler). GlaxoSmithKline is a “global healthcare group, which is engaged in the creation and discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of

Bacteria that are resistant to several types of antibiotics are called multi-resistant bacteria (also known as superbugs). Superbugs have caused a global epidemic, hiding in plain sight. Every year, superbugs kill off thousands of people, rob them of their health insurance and cost the state millions in order to control this so called epidemic.

A couple times a year local and national mass media put the spotlight on problems connected to antibiotic overuse. Some people consider those problems to be real and serious, and others think that the discussed topics are nothing more than new “fashionable” subjects to talk about, distracting people from “real” problems, such as climbing gas prices or war expenses. Meanwhile, antibiotic overuse continues as a common practice among US doctors and agribusinesses for the last 20 years. The practice of antibiotic overuse has put patient’s health at risk, contributed to antibiotic resistance and increased bacterial mutation to a new, stronger level; as well as it hitting the economy with new costly expenses in health care. It is time to stop

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.

In June of 2011, a woman entered the National Institutes of Health Research Hospital in Bethesda Maryland with a serious, but fairly routine infection; however the subsequent events were to prove anything but routine. The woman was suffering from an infection caused by an antibiotic-resistant organism, but it was a new strain, never before encountered. About a month after she was treated and discharged, another patient came down with the same infection, and then more and more. After many unsuccessful attempts to isolate the cause of the infections, the NIH eventually used a new technology, known as "Whole Genome Sequencing," to isolate the pattern of infection and bring it under control. (Melissa Block, Eddie Cornish) This process is a new way to quickly isolate and sequence the entire genome of a particular organism, which the NIH used to help identify the pattern of infection. Of the 17 other patients who contracted the infection, six died, but it was learned that the pathogen can be transmitted in ways never before seen. (Melissa Block, Eddie Cornish)

A Superbug is a bacterium that can live in the human body and has the ability to withstand all forms of antibiotic medication. Superbugs are becoming increasingly significant in modern medicine as they are becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics. Antibiotics were discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming (Walsh and McManus, 2000). This resulted in a huge movement forward in medical history and even greatened human life expectancy. Since then antibiotics have been widely used and abused, people began to treat everything with this ‘miracle’ drug. If antibiotics are continually used as bacteria grows exponentially more resistant to them then eventually society will fall back into an era without the readily

we may be overridden by diseases that are not easily treated by just popping a couple of pills.

First of all, over dosages of antibiotics cause major issues. In Source A it states “Spread or emergence of multidrug resistance, including resistance to ACT’s in other regions could jeopardize important recent gains in control of the disease.”. Viruses are now resistant towards drugs and antibiotics, which means these viruses will only become stronger, and harder to eliminate. This statement also proves that this issue is not only happening in America, this is an issue worldwide. Furthermore, in Source B it states “ It’s a significant problem around the globe- the development of so-called ‘superbugs’,

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

Although many will believe that this is an issue that will not affect them, the 10 million statistic is an indicator that the scope of this calamity will reach far and wide. Even if impoverished and therefore, unsanitary areas of the world are hit hardest by epidemics, the vast connections of travel that millions of people take everyday will spread a superbug around like wildfire. Like many epidemics such as bird flu, ebola, and SARS, their origins stem from viruses that evolved from animal to human are associated with overpopulated and unsanitary parts of the world such as China and West Africa. Antibiotic resistant bacteria are different in this respect, it’s developing in first world country hospitals, patients prescribed antibiotics after

At least two million people are infected with antibiotic resistant superbugs and at least 23,000 die from them.

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

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.

As a writer for The Globe and Mail, Jennifer Yang, stated, “Anti-bacterial products containing anti-microbial agents are being increasingly marketed to Canadians for personal and household use despite a lack of evidence for additional benefit and serious concerns about the potential for increased bacterial resistance.” The concern she is talking about is centred in the use of the products such as disinfectant sprays, of which can kill 99.9% of bacteria on a given surface. The 0.1% that is left remaining is the mutated antibiotic-resistant super bug which the disinfectant is unable to kill due to its mutated nature. And being the only type left, it has no competitors remaining for resources and can divide at a rapid pace, giving birth to a larger colony of highly dangerous pathogens. The same phenomena occurs when patients stop taking antibiotics half way through their treatment. The amount of bacteria in their body at that point has a higher percentage of stronger bacteria than the weaker. Therefore, when the patient decides to stop their antibiotic treatment, they inadvertently create more resistant bacteria than there originally was in their body, as the mutated bacteria now has more room to grow. If those bacteria are then passed on to another person, the rate of resistant bacteria dramatically increases, raising the amount of near invincible pathogens in the world by another percentage.

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).