The Overuse Of Antibiotics: The Perfect Storm

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

Antibiotics are inarguably one of the greatest advances in medical science of the past century. Although the first natural antibiotic Penicillin was not discovered until 1928 by Scottish biologist Alexander Flemming, evidence exists that certain plant and mold growths were used to treat infections in ancient Egypt, ancient India, and classical Greece (Forrest, 1982). In our modern world with the advent of synthetic chemistry synthetic antibiotics like Erithromycin and its derivative Azithromycin have been developed. Antibiotics have many uses including the treatment of bacterial and protozoan infection, in surgical operations and prophylactically to prevent the development of an infection. Through these applications, antibiotics have saved countless lives across the world and radically altered the field of medicine. Though a wonderful and potentially lifesaving tool, antibiotic use is not without its disadvantages. Mankind has perhaps been too lax in regulation and too liberal in application of antibiotics and growing antibiotic resistance is the price we must now pay. A recent study showed that perhaps 70% of bacterial infections acquired during hospital visits in the United States are resistant to at least one class of antibiotic (Leeb, 2004). Bacteria are not helpless and their genetic capabilities have allowed them to take advantage of society’s overuse of antibiotics, allowing them to develop

The world has seen many changes throughout its time. From the dinosaurs, to people habiting earth, the population growing rapidly, and the invention of medicine, the earth has gone through a lot. Civilization has always found ways to survive, natural disasters, plagues, wars, and attacks. Somehow the human race has always come out on top. A great, eye opening discovery for the world has been antibiotics. With these new found drugs the population has been able to survive sicknesses and live decades longer, than the ones that came before. Imagine dying from a simple cold because of no medicine. Only with all great things, there is always the negative. Society seems to rely on the fast and easy way out, and that is what antibiotics allow. Unfortunately,

    These are many killers that damage generations, but there is one tiny thing that has caused countless deaths and injuries throughout history -- Superbugs. It caused 700,000 deaths every year, and it was estimated to kill 10 million lives each year by 2050, which would cost over 100 trillion dollars per year and a worldwide economic output reduction of 2% to 3.5%, etc.(Walsh,para2) Surprisingly, superbugs are caused by nothing else but overusing “life-saver”: antibiotics. Thus, we must significantly limit the use of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture in order to stop the creation of deadly, drug-resistant “Superbugs.”

Before antibiotics were discovered, bacterial infections like strep throat and meningitis were untreatable and often deadly. Things that seem easily treatable to us now, like an ear infection, could mean a death sentence to those with weak immune systems, such as the very young or the elderly. Antibiotics were first discovered in the form of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928, but its true power wasn’t recognized until the 1940s after more medical testing was conducted. Once the commercialization of antibiotics began, it was declared a ‘miracle drug’ and its use skyrocketed to the number of prescriptions we see today, about 150 million a year (“History of Antibiotics”). Antibiotics have saved millions of lives, and without a doubt have improved the quality of life of many people around the world, but unfortunately, not everyone uses them correctly. Overuse of prescription antibiotics is becoming increasingly common, with some people hoarding leftover pills and needlessly taking

The continual chess game that we play against nature, she seems to outmaneuver us with every move that we make, regardless of our increasing amount of resources and knowledge. Dr. Lori Tishler of Harvard Medical School says on the school’s published web articles that drug-resistant bacteria sicken more than 2 million people in America each year and account for 23,00 deaths. People are still getting sick and dying all over the world, and when one microbial threat is neutralized, another drug-resistant strain is recognized. Here are some examples out of Dr. Kimberly Thompson’s book, Overkill: in

Antibiotics has played a huge role in the field of medicine since it was first discovered in 1928. Antibiotics are antimicrobial drug that kills or inhibits growth of diseases which prevents many illnesses. However, in the past decade, Antibiotic resistant bacteria has become the world’s latest pandemic. Many strains of bacteria have adapted and developed resistance against antibiotics. According to the CDC, “at least two million people are infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections.” (CDC) This is a problem because antibiotics are the number one defense tactics against bacterial infections. Without this line of defense, people vulnerable to bacteria growth which can cause problems in health.

Throughout the centuries the improvement of medicine has always been on the run. Whether the cure for a viral or bacterial infection to the simple cure of a common cold, advances in medicine can be said to have had a great impact in the lives of many in the U.S. and around the world. In the U.S. alone, the life expectancy of an American increased from 49 years to 77 years because of the new way of life in the health aspect. There is no doubt that antibiotics specifically, not to say the prevention of diseases by public health regulations including over-the-counter drugs and surgical procedures, have saved thousands or even millions of lives in the U.S and around the world. However, there are many cases in which antibiotics are being overused, which in effect cause more harm than good.

Infection, however, is not the only fear from the overuse of antibiotics. New research into the microbiome, the amalgamation of microorganisms naturally present within the human body, has shown that antibiotics are also destroying the beneficial prokaryotes within us, leading to a host of other “modern maladies”. For example, altered populations of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, two types of bacteria in the large intestine, have been correlated with an increased disposition toward obesity. The absence of H. pylori has been found to cause increased rates of esophageal adenocarcinoma. Bacteria have found to play a role in everything from autism to mental illness to autoimmune disorders. The overuse of antibiotics hinders beneficial microorganisms just as much as it helps infections. Humanity is, quite literally, digging itself into

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).

Increasing bacterial resistance to antibiotic treatments has become a worldwide issue over the last 20 years as consumer and general practitioner’s incentives for a ‘quick fix’ to minor illnesses have caused a negative externality for the consumption of antibiotics. A negative externality in this example is when a third party, in this case, society as a whole, is adversely affected by the overconsumption of antibiotics, due to greater bacterial resistance, causing more advanced diseases that pose a greater risk to the health of a society. The roles played by consumers, doctors and pharmaceutical manufacturers will be discussed in detail

Antibiotics are the key drugs for treatment of infections and are among the most commonly prescribed drugs in Pediatrics department. Their indiscriminate use increases the risk of bacterial drug resistance and thus has prompted the need to use antibiotics judiciously in pediatric practice [1]. The prescribing pattern deals with monitoring, evaluating and suggesting modifications in the prescribing pattern, so as to make patient care safe, effective and cost effective [2]. Antibiotics are commonly prescribed to treat various infectious conditions. Several studies reported that 50% to 85% of children receive antibiotics in developed and developing countries. Rational antibiotic prescription is very important to avoid multiple drug resistance,

Antimicrobial resistance is the ability of microbes to recalcitrant the outcome of drugs – that is, the germs are not destroy, and their advancement is not shut. Although some people are at better chance than others, no one can fully avoid the wager of wonder drug-resisting infections. Infections with resisting organisms are difficult to discourse, request sumptuous and sometimes toxic alternatives. Bacteria will inevitably find ways of resisting the antibiotics improved by humans, which is why aggressive movement is needed now to keep modern resistance from developing and to prevent the resistance that already live from spreading. Explanation of Bacteria and Other Microbes are organisms too inconsiderable for the eye to see and are found everywhere on Earth. There are many types of microbes: bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. While most microbes are unoffending and even serviceable to living organisms, some can mainspring indisposition among humans, other animals, and generate. These indisposition-causing microbes are invoke pathogens; sometimes they are apply to as “germs” or “germ.” All types of microbes have the address to develop resistance to the drudge created to destroy them, becoming dope-resistant organisms. How Resistance Happens Simply second-hand antibiotics created resistance. These pharmaceutical should only be custom to manage infections. Trends in Drug

Have you ever had an infection before? Particularly, a bacterial infection. Millions of people are infected by means of bacteria per year in the United States alone (CDC 2017). At least two million of those residents are infected by bacteria that are resistant to the antibiotics that are currently on the market (CDC 2017). Bacterial infections are not the leading cause of mortality in the United States, but I believe that there is a need for a change in the way that the United States looks at antimicrobial research (CDC 2017). In this paper I will discuss the modes of antibacterial resistance, why pharmaceutical companies aren’t researching new antibiotics, and why this is an important global issue.