The Importance Of Antibiotic Resistance

Scientists have proved a direct relationship between antibiotic dosage and the emergence and spread of drug-resistant bacteria. Firstly, the overuse of antibiotics clearly drives the evolution of resistance. In many countries where antibiotics are unregulated and can be bought without a prescription. The lack of regulation leads to antibiotics being easily available, plentiful and cheap, which results in overuse. With the emergence of online shopping, people in countries where antibiotics are regulated also can get antibiotics from foreign countries. Secondly, incorrectly prescribed antibiotics also contribute to the promotion of resistant bacteria. Up to half of antibiotics used in humans are unnecessary and inappropriate. For example, a third of people believe that antibiotics are effective for the common cold, and the common cold is the most common reason

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.

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.

Without a doubt, the issue with antibiotic resistance has become one of the most urgent health problems in the world. Recent studies have proven that antibiotics are becoming less effective in the recent years. For instance, developing countries like China and Kuwait experienced rapid growth in antibiotic resistance. In the years between 1994 and 2002 the reported cases of hospital and community-acquired antimicrobial infections for China boosted from 22% to 41% and Kuwait also experienced an average of 17% growth from 1999 to 2003 (Zhang 1). As the prevalence of superbugs is becoming more common due to excessive or incorrect use of penicillin and quinolones, people are more susceptible to contact this lethal microbe. The existence of antibiotic is meant to be beneficial to the human population because the drug itself is very effective at curing illnesses and enhancing food safety (Clemmitt 1). At the same time, people are generating a more serious issue by overusing the drugs.

Also known as superbugs, these bugs are resistant to our modern day antibiotics. People around the world are trying to figure out alternatives to this plague. These bugs have evolved over years and years becoming stronger and passing down genes from generation to generation, To slowly become the super bugs that they are known as today. Often these resistant genes are caused by overuse of antibiotics by humans and farm animals, but this is not always true. Recently the ARS (the American Recorder Society) found antibiotic resistance in prairie soils that had no human contact. Antibiotic resistance is commonly viewed as a result of antibiotic overuse in humans and animals, Recently found antibiotic-resistant

The current discovery of growing antibiotic resistant bacteria has been linked to the public’s unaware overuse of antibiotics and changing rates of antibiotic prescription. Many people in the U.S. are already knowledgeable that antibiotics are used to help fight against disease or infections, but the mass population is blind to the negative drawbacks of overusing the antibiotics. The research “ Study shows for antibiotic overuse” by Mike Stobbe (2013) provides a clear explanation of the drawback provided by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stating that antibiotic resistant bacteria are produced, “when antibiotics are not used long enough or are taken for the wrong reasons, allowing

Antibiotics have been a very important means for someone to feel better. Since the discovery of Penicillin in 1928, antibiotics have saved many countless lives that otherwise wouldn’t be saved. The real threat in the world today is the rapid spreading of antibiotic resistant diseases. To address this worldwide problem the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria was developed and issued by President Barack Obama on September 18, 2014. This plan lists five goals to slow the progression of resistant bacteria. These goals work as a guide actions of the U.S government and public health agencies around the world to address this big concern to the world’s safety.

Antibiotics are commonly used to treat bacterial infections in both humans and animals however the overuse and inappropriate prescription of antibiotics has caused a worldwide concern in antibiotic resistance (FDA, 2015). Antibiotic resistance is when bacteria is able to evolve in such a way enabling the bacteria to survive in the conditions it is in, consequently causing antibiotics being ineffective to the patient (CDC, 2013). Due to this issue implementations and actions have been taken to aid in the reduction of antibiotic resistance.

The abuse of antibiotics is a threat to global health as we approach a post-antibiotic era. As of now, antibiotics are massively used for human prescriptive reasons, as well as for food growth in livestock. As such, without effective antibiotics, health is

Aiming to educate individuals and health care providers about resistant bacteria’s negative influence on their long-term health, Europe launched a project in 2007: Burden of resistance and disease in European nations (Burden) since the Department of Health identified the lack of data on antibiotics (as cited in Kaier et al. 493). In response to this strategy, United Kingdom’s Department of Health and Environment implanted an antimicrobial resistance strategy from March 2013 to 2018 to promote the responsible antibiotic use for animals and humans and to enhance the guidelines of monitoring antibiotic use (as cited in While 345). So far, it seems like Europe’s strategies are far ahead than North America who has not yet executed any strategies to reduce antibiotic resistance despite the heavy usage of antibiotics as mentioned earlier. Finally, new guidelines are in place by Europe’s government: NG15 and KTT9. NG15 states recommendations regarding antibiotic stewardship in organizations, which includes monitoring antibiotics, identifying resistance patterns, and providing feedback to prescribers. KTT9 summarizes evidence gained from antibiotic prescribing which “emphasizes the importance of minimizing antibiotic prescribing and using simple generic antibiotics where possible, thereby reserving broad spectrum antibiotics to treat resistant

Antibiotics have been an important instrument in public health since 1928, saving the lives of people around the world. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015), about half of antibiotics used in human and animals are unnecessarily and inappropriately prescribed, leading to the emergence of drug resistance in bacteria (CDC, 2015). The CDC estimates that drug-resistant bacteria cause two million illnesses and approximately 23,000 deaths each year in the United States alone (2015).

Ceftazidime is a third generation cephalosporin antibiotic used to treat a number of bacterial infections, particularly Pseudomonas and other Gram negatives, and its activity relies on binding of essential penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) (1). Despite its effectiveness against certain bacteria, there have been reports of rapidly increasing incidences of antibacterial resistance to ceftazidime caused by extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae (2). Recently, a new beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitor combination, ceftazidime-avibactam (AVYCAZ) has shown to have “in vitro activity against Enterobacteriaceae in the presence of some beta-lactamases and extended-spectrum beta-lactamases” and is FDA-approved for treating complicated intra-abdominal infections as well as complicated urinary tract infections (1). Due to the resistance frequency of inpatient Enterobacteriaceae isolates at the University of Washington Medical Center (4), susceptibility testing of Ceftazidime and Ceftazidime-Avibactam are crucial to ensure antibiotic treatment efficacy and to take action to reduce the spread of multi-drug resistant bacteria in a hospital setting.

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).