The Importance Of Antibiotic Resistance

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.

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

A current predicament in the field of science is antibiotic resistance against superbugs.Though fighting against superbugs; which can be defined as a strain of bacteria unable to be killed using multiple antibiotics, is now a large problem, in the past it was not. The evolution of resistance in bacteria due to antibiotic abuse and lack of product development has brought upon us once again the fear of a pre-antibiotic era; one where simple, once easily defeated infections could kill. Already, infectious diseases are the 3rd leading cause of death in the US and the 2nd across the entire world, and drug resistant superbugs send 2 million Americans to hospitals every year; killing 23,000 of those people. And any bacterium can quickly and easily become multidrug resistant, the leading cause of this being antibiotic misuse in both humans and animals.( "Clinical Infectious Diseases." The Epidemic of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections: A Call to Action for the Medical Community from the Infectious Diseases Society of America. UCLA Medical School. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.)

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.

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.

Sadly most recently there was a strain of Antibiotic resistant genes was transferred from human to animal, In this case it was a cow and about 7 people and a resistant strain of salmonella luckily no one died in this case. Although this is a step in the right direction we must keep the Industries and the FDA’s feet to the fire because without proper enforcement the producers could use similar amounts of antibiotics to “treat illness” in the livestock. These are changes we need to make to prevent the epidemic of Antibiotic

Antimicrobial resistance is a growing, global problem (World health organisation [WHO], 2016) that has resulted in action from the Department of Health [DH], (2013). in the form of a five year Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Strategy. The AMR strategy running 2013-2018 aims to build international alliances with governments and partners across

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

Human life expectancy in the United States is currently around 70-80 years, and through the use of antibiotics, life expectancy has the ability to increase beyond what we currently expect. As stated by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCSUSA), the best approach to diminish the use of antibiotics on animals is to reduce nonessential uses and reserve as many of these drugs as possible. In doing so this will give animals the ability to produce in a healthier way and have an overall well-shaped

Antibiotics are used by millions of people every day, myself included. Their uses include a wide variety of circumstances like treating common colds or battling infections during surgeries. The versatility of the antibiotic also happens to be its greatest downfall. The overuse and misuse of these medications, as well as a lack of new drug development by the pharmaceutical industry contributes to the rapid growth of antibiotic resistance. The emergence of resistant bacteria occurring worldwide, endangers the efficacy of antibiotics. While the effects of these resistant bacteria may seem small, in 25 to 50 years the outcome could result in a “post-antibiotic era.” Moreover, many farmers and agriculturists advocate for the use of antibiotics

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).

Avant, S. (2012). Strategies that work: Alternatives to antibiotics in animal health. Agricultural Research, 60(5), 4-7. Retrieved from https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/ar/archive/2012/may/animal0512.pdf

Antibiotic resistance (ABR) is a worldwide health risk that has people brought by attention. According to, Barlam, and Gupta authors in the article, “Antibiotic Resistance Spreads Internationally Across Borders”, state that “ABR develops when bacteria are exposed to antibiotics either during treatments in humans or animals or through environmental sources contaminated with antibiotic residues” (12). Therefore, ABR is causing humans with bacterial infections, unable to treat infections because of the resistance to the antibiotics. Discussed in the article, ABR is “Spread beyond those administered antibiotics occurs through direct contact with the infected or colonized person or animal, through contact or ingestion of retail meat ...” (Barlam and Gupta 12). A variety of food-producing animals is affecting humans’ health due to farmers, and vets providing treatments to animals. These farmers are allowing these vets to prescribe antibiotics to animals to help their growth in their business. The types of antibiotics provided to the food-producing animals grow for faster production, or to treat animals that are sick or have health issues. Nevertheless, farmers play a big factor in the growth of ABR. The human population is exhibiting an increase in infections and illnesses because the drugs doctors are prescribing, their body is resistant to the drugs. Adding antibiotics to promote growth in food-producing animals, over-prescribing them for health reasons, and allowing

In a perfect doctor -patient relationship model, a physician always must consider his present patient's physical condition, risk of contaminated disease, research, and risk of resistance during antibiotic prescribing (Leibovici, Shraga & Andreassen, 1993). According to Leibovici, Paul & Ezra (2012, p. 2), in case of viral infection, pathogens sensitive for narrow spectrum antibiotic, prolong prophylaxis, physicians do not prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics. On the other hand, if the cost effectiveness of a treatment procedure is considered, then it becomes an example of Act Utilitarianism and contradicts with autonomy (Leibovici, Paul & Ezra, 2012, p. 3). Moreover, drug resistance also represents the injustice of distribution and consumption among the developed and developing world. According to PRWeb (2011), the global antibiotic market was USD 24 billion and may reach to USD 40.3 billion in 2015. It happens to be a result of over consumption of the wealthy people and under consumption by the poor. The aggressive commercial advertisement of the drug companies direct to consumers also creating an environment for malpractice (Selgelid, 2007, p-222-224).