War Against Bacteria Research Paper

Modern-day advances have allowed scientists to develop methods to control pathogens. The more common methods include the use of antiseptics, antibiotics, and vaccines. By definition, antiseptics are chemicals used to kill pathogens. A few widespread antiseptics include soap, vinegar, and rubbing alcohol. Antiseptics are primarily used for the external destruction of pathogens, while antibiotics and vaccines target internal pathogens. Nevertheless, there are and can be difficulties concerning the use of antibiotics. “As antibiotic use has become more common, antibiotic-resistant bacteria have evolved.” This resistance due to evolution is called antibiotic resistance. It results in the antibiotics having no effect whatsoever on the bacteria, rendering the antibiotics useless. When antibiotic resistance occurs, scientists must resume their search to create a new medicine to can kill the mutant bacteria.

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

Possible solutions for resistance in the future are to find new antibiotics in niches besides soil, such as the marine environment as globalization and deforestation make new soil discoveries harder each day. Educating people about resistance to prevent misuse is important as well because not everybody knows about the growing resistance problem. If people know about the resistance problem, proper use of antibiotics would increase. Antibiotics today are easily accessible without the need of prescription in most cases, leading to the wrong self-diagnosis based on observation instead of actual tests. Creating more regulations to ensure prescriptions and correct diagnosis will help with the misuse of antibiotics. Stopping their use as growth hormones in agriculture will also help because the antibiotics from the plants and animals are able to unnecessarily get into a person’s body, which promotes more antibiotic resistance since the dosages are not consistent. As the antibiotics pass through the livestock and people, they contaminate the water system. The antibiotic resistance today does not necessarily mean the end of antibiotics as long as

In this time and age, with the astounding development of large-scale livestock feeding operation of swine, poultry and especially cattle, the antibiotics are used globally to keep the animals healthy and promote their

However, the scene is changing dramatically once again, and not in our favor. Antibiotic resistant bacteria

The problem is that antibiotics resistance has become a very big problem in todays society. Antibiotics are no longer effective against certain super-bugs such as MRSA.

Finally, the most important reason there should be strict regulations to curb the overuse of antibiotics in factory farming is because this practice is creating breeding grounds for super bugs. A 2008 report from Pew Commission report on Industrial Farm Animal Production concluded that “of particular concern is the rapid rise in antibiotic-resistant microbes, an inevitable consequence of the widespread use of antibiotics as feed additives in industrial livestock operations” (Sayre 76-83). Most often the superbugs hitch a ride into the surrounding environment in the mountains of waste produced on industrial scale farms. They end up in our ground water, soil, and even our meats. Making themselves know in the ever increasing numbers of antibiotic-resistant infections that now kill more people annually than AIDS.

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.

Some of the most common concerns involve how these resistant bacteria spread and the effects they have on people. Antibiotic bacteria are commonly explained as antibiotics killing bacteria of the illness and also some good bacteria, making the drug-resistant bacteria grow and take over. For example, the use of antibiotics in agriculture for the food-producing animals contribute to the spread of resistant bacteria, causing the bacteria to then be transmitted to humans through the consumption of food. This should mean that if the animals are being prescribed these antibiotics, then they shouldn’t be allowed to be used for food. I think that even though the ranchers would be losing money, it’s not worth it to feed people animals with bad bacteria in them. The pneumonia infections have decreased,

Antimicrobial agents represent one of the main therapeutic tools both in human and veterinary medicine to control and treat a variety of bacterial infectious diseases. Despite an increasing prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, the health and economic impact of colonization and infection with these organisms has not been fully elucidated. Antimicrobial are substances capable of killing or slowing the growth of microbes such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. EMR develops when the microbes change in some way so that the antimicrobial used to treat them become less effective and sometimes it doesn't work at all. Antimicrobial are used in several ways. In humans they are used to prevent control and treat infections. In agriculture, they work to treat control or

For example, you may have heard of the woman in Reno this January who died to a “nightmare superbug” because the infection could not be cured by every available antibiotic in the United States (Nevada Public Radio, 17 January 2017, para. 3). On the Infectious Diseases Society of America website was the story of how a 19-year-old college student, Meredith Littlejohn, died to a superbug after spending time in an intensive care unit. (Infectious Diseases Society of America, n.d., para. 1-3). These are only two of thousands who die every year. And so clearly our misuse and overuse of antibiotics have created very serious, negative outcomes.

All over the world we have been putting antibiotics into everything imaginable. Things like dog food, air fresheners and even garbage bags in an attempt to stop bacteria from spreading in our homes. But instead of killing the bacteria once and for all we may just be making them stronger. Every bacteriologist’s nightmare is coming true. Bacteria are beginning to be almost impossible to kill.

Antibiotic played a role in people lives which treated people with infection diseases or other diseases. What concerns about the antibiotic resistance, what measures are being taken to address this problem, and how to prevent diseases getting on you?

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).

This article is written because of the increasing emergence of antibiotics resistant bacteria. Antibiotics and similar drugs are called antimicrobial agents, have been used for the last 70 years to treat patients who have infectious diseases. These antibiotics may either kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria. These drugs have been used so widely and for so long that the infectious organisms the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted to them, making the drugs less effective. This occurs when the bacteria acquired antibiotic resistance genes. With this we know that only taking antibiotic when is really necessary or prescribe by a doctor or professional is the way to go. It is also clear that the writer is trying to inform us on the problems faced by the population and urge us to not follow their footstep.