BIOLOGY ISSUES INVESTIGATION
Should antibiotics be more strictly regulated to prevent the rise of superbugs?
In today’s modern society, the use of antibiotics is becoming increasingly prevalent. Due to the global population’s increased usage of medicines, certain types of bacteria have developed antibiotic resistance, creating superbugs. Superbugs are bacteria 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 because the antibiotics are made redundant. (State Government of Victoria, 2015) The looming threat of widespread antibiotic resistant bacteria raises the question, ‘Should
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Bactericidal antibiotics kill bacteria by interfering with the cell wall or organelle formation. (News Medical, 2004) Bacteriostatic antibiotics interfere with the cell’s metabolic processes, such as DNA replication and protein synthesis. (News Medical, 2004) Both actions inhibit the cells vital processes, causing cell death. (Crierie & Grieg, 2010) However, superbugs, such as strains of Staphylococcus aureus, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis are deadly as they are very difficult to treat due to their resistance to multiple antibiotics. (NPS MedicineWise, 2012) Previously, Staphylococcus aureus was treated with benzyl penicillin. Currently, however, the bacteria cannot be controlled through this method, as they have developed resistance, which occurs because bacteria have the ability to mutate. After antibiotic contact, bacteria can alter their DNA in a way that enables them to resist the antibiotics. Bacteria are prokaryotic organisms and produce asexually by binary fission, thus their offspring have no genetic diversity. The only source of genetic variation in bacteria is through mutation. (Crierie & Grieg, 2010) Mutation refers to changes in gene sequences, resulting in variation in subsequent generations. This process occurs in every millionth to ten-millionth cell. (Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, 2014) Certain types of mutations cause different types of resistance. They may enable …show more content…
A huge advancement was made in the world of medicine when antibiotics were first invented. Suddenly, deadly diseases such as Staphylococcus could be cured. (Tan, 2014) Before antibiotic discovery in 1928, and their prescription in the late 1930’s, Streptococcus pyogenes caused 50% of post-birth deaths, and was a major cause of death in burn victims. Staphylococcus aureus killed 80% of people with infected wounds, and tuberculosis and pneumonia ran rampant within the population. Through the use of antibiotics, these diseases could be easily treated. Between 1944 and 1972, human life expectancy leaped by eight years, primarily accredited to antibiotics; and the number of people dying due to bacterial infection dramatically fell. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1999) Therefore, antibiotics are beneficial as they are able to save lives, and treat various types of bacterial diseases. In addition they are easily administered - they may simply be taken orally, or injected. They are also cost-effective, and have few side effects. Moreover, the cost of antibiotic regulation, public ignorance of the threat, and adherence to routine are major factors preventing regulation laws to be put in place. (Krans,
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.
Antibiotics, composed of microorganisms such as streptomycin and penicillin, kill other infectious microorganisms in the human body. At one point, antibiotics were considered to have “basically wiped out infection in the United States”, but due to their overuse and evolutionary
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.
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.
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
The misuse and overdose of the antibiotics increase the resistance problem. It can cause these bacteria to
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
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.
These mutations, no matter what process that has led to their occurrence, block the action of antibiotics by interfering with their mechanism of action (1). Currently, antibiotics attack bacteria through one of two mechanisms. In both mechanisms the antibiotic enters the microbe and interferes with production of the components needed to form new bacterial cells. Some antibiotics act on the cell membrane, causing increased permeability and leakage of cell contents. Other antibiotics interfere with protein synthesis in cells. They block one or more of the steps involved in the transformation of nucleic acids into proteins.
Antibiotics have been treating diseases and infections for a very long time. During ancient times many different types of things were used such as moulds, plants, frog bile and more. However, it was not until modern times when antibiotics started to become more commonly known and used. The discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming marked a new pathway for modern antibiotics. Since then antibiotics have been used constantly for colds, medical procedures, saving millions of lives. However, they are being misused and overused, making them less effective as the bacteria they are fighting develop resistance. This is a global concern that many people still
Not many can comprehend the true significance of this primary health discovery and the improvements antibiotics has made in the medical community and modern day society. Between 1944 and 1972, life expectancy increased by eight years mainly due to the discovery of antibiotics. Patients would die from the common cold, measles and tuberculosis. In modern day society this can be cured by a simple antibiotic prescription. During the periods 1960 and 2014, population has grown with more than 300 billion people. By combating these general bacterial infections, which proved to be deadly, it is clear that antibiotics have somewhat contributed to population growth.
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).
Antibiotics are an expansive class of antimicrobial drugs, also referred to as antibacterial agents, which are mainly used to overcome bacterial infections by either eliminating or inhibiting the growth of these infectious agents (Demain and Fang, 2000). Antibiotics, alongside vaccination, played a key role in revolutionizing medicine during the 20th century, as well as coming close to eradicating diseases such as tuberculosis (Berdy, 2005). Moreover, these antimicrobial drugs are majorly the reason behind extending the average life expectancy, where in the United States a dramatic increase from 47 years in 1900–1974 to 80 years in the year 2000 was concluded (Lederberg, 2000).