Antibiotic Resistance in the United States One of the most important breakthroughs in modern medicine and public health efforts is the discovery of Penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928. The effects of this discovery cannot be overstated; antibiotics have saved millions of lives and have significantly reduced morbidity and mortality in the global population (Fauci & Morens, 2012). The 1950s and 1970s saw the discovery of many new antibiotics classes, with no new classes of antibiotics discovered since the late 1980s (Aminov, 2010). While integral to the survival of many people, public health officials and the Centers for Disease Control have warned that the overuse and improper use of antibiotics by humans and industries can limit the effectiveness of antibiotics and create antibiotic resistant strains of diseases (Ventola, 2015). …show more content…
In April 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the problem of antibiotic resistance “is so serious that it threatens the achievements of modern medicine...A post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries can kill, is a very real possibility for the 21st century” (Organization & Asia, 2015). Many very common, easily treated bacterial pathogens are already known to have some level of antibiotic resistance. These include "Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and species of enterobacter, salmonella, and shigella" (Nathan & Cars,
Penicillin, derived from the mold Penicillium, is the first antibiotic to successfully treat bacterial infections on humans. It was accidentally discovered by scientist, Alexander Fleming. While Fleming was growing Staphylococcus, a serious and often deadly infection, in a dish, he noticed the bacteria had stopped growing after a mold found its way
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has presented many problems in our society, including an increased chance of fatality due to infections that could have otherwise been treated with success. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, but overexposure to these drugs give the bacteria more opportunities to mutate, forming resistant strains. Through natural selection, those few mutated bacteria are able to survive treatments of antibiotics and then pass on their genes to other bacterial cells through lateral gene transfer (Zhaxybayeva, 2011). Once resistance builds in one patient, it is possible for the strain to be transmitted to others through improper hygiene and failure to isolate patients in hospitals.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are created when mutations in the pathogen's genetic code occurs, changing the protein in the bacteria that the antibiotics normally go after into a shape that the antibiotic can not recognize. The average bacteria divides every twenty minutes, so if a contaminated spot has one single bacteria in the morning, there could be trillions on that same spot at the end of the day. That means that when counting all the possibilities of mutations, the amount of mutated offspring that the bacteria might have formed during those replications could be as high as in the millions. Fortunately though, this does not happen so frequently that it is normally an issue. The amount of non-mutated bacteria vastly outnumbers the mutated ones and many of the mutations occurring in the bacteria usually have either a harmful effect, or not effect at all on its function. That means that the pathogen is still relatively less harmful than it c...
This is the main reason antibiotic studies are disregarded. If the large majority of the population continues to do little to avert antibiotic resistance, bacteria will evolve beyond medical treatment. Actions must be taken by the community as a whole, and even further by the individual, to “reduce the spread of microbes and improve our defense against them” (Schmidt 272). Although antibiotic resistance is inevitable, humans are accelerating the natural defense of microbes through the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. The natural components of antibiotics have been used as local remedies long before humans understood the reasons why these sometimes-radical treatments worked.
Antibiotic resistance is one of the most important issues facing health care today, with wide reaching future implications if abuse continues. In the United States alone, antibiotic resistance is responsible for over two million illnesses and 23,000 deaths per year. Providers need to be judicious in the disbursement of these life saving pharmacological agents, while being informative of why antibiotics are not always the answer (Talkington, Cairns, Dolen, & Mothershed, 2014). In the case listed below, several issues need to be addressed including perception, knowledge deficit, and the caregiver’s role. This paper will focus on whether a prescription for antibiotics is appropriate and other courses of action that may be taken instead.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), describes antibiotic resistance is the ability of bacteria or other microbes to resist the effects of antibiotic treatment. () So instead of being destroyed by the medications, the bacteria survives and continues to reproduce, resultant in new communicable diseases that even more difficult to treat.
The exacerbating effects and devastation caused by bacteria such as Mycobacterium,Vibrio cholerae, Bacillus anthracis, Xylophilus ampelinus, etc, is the growing threat of drug-resistance in many parts of the world. Identifying and addressing barriers to effective and timely diagnosis and treatment of drug-resistant diseases will be critical to preventing further emergence of strains of the disease with broad-spectrum resistance.
“The World Health Organization projects that as drug effectiveness decreases and antibiotic resistance increases, public education becomes more and more crucial” (476) Antibiotics were discovered in 1940 and since have been abused and misused. Between bad practices and lack of proper education antibiotic resistance has been allowed to occur. The only way to combat bacterial infections is with strong patient education and following the correct schedule in taking antibiotics.
Antibiotics are used worldwide and although their uses have helped many people, it doesn't come without risk. The use of antibiotics treats people and animals alike to cure infection and are easily excusable through physicians. However in recent years, since antibiotics are used so universally, antibiotic- resistant strains have become a growing problem. This suggest that the bacteria is adapting to the antibiotics and through natural selection, the antibiotic- resistant bacteria have grown in numbers. The scientific community worries about future treatment of diseases if the bacteria continues to adapt. For example tuberculosis which hasn't been a problem in some time, has started to reoccur as a much harder to treat strain. Antibiotics are the go to method of treating infection but we need to be careful when we are using them.
This turn of events presents us with an alarming problem. Strains of bacteria that are resistant to all prescribed antibiotics are beginning to appear. As a result, diseases such as tuberculosis and penicillin-resistant gonorrhea are reemerging on a worldwide scale (1). Resistance first appears in a population of bacteria through conditions that favor its selection. When an antibiotic attacks a group of bacteria, cells that are highly susceptible to the medicine will die.
The most effective way to combat pathogenic bacteria which invade the body is the use of antibiotics. Overexposure to antibiotics can easily lead to resistant strains of bacteria. Resistance is dangerous because bacteria can easily spread from person to person. Simple methods for preventing excessive bacterial spread are often overlooked. Not all preventative measures are even adequate. Doctors and patients often use antibiotics unnecessarily or incorrectly, leading to greater resistance. Antibiotics are used heavily in livestock and this excessive antibiotic use can create resistant bacteria and transfer them to humans. In order to reduce resistant bacteria,
Thesis: With the advent of antibiotics in 1929 Fleming said, "The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops.Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant."With the overuse of antibiotics today we have seen this very idea come to be.Over usage is caused most prevalently by a lack of education on the part of the patient.Thus stated, the way to overcome such a circumstance is to educate, not only the patient but also the physician.
Antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to resist the effects of an antibiotic that would have originally affected the microorganism. The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance is one of the most pressing world health concerns of the 21st century. In order to combat this spread, the phenomenon must first be understood. Many studies have delved into understanding the emergence of antibiotic resistance, most of which reached the conclusion of Darwinian selection being the reason for the resistance. One of the understood contributions of antibiotic resistance are the toxin-antitoxin systems, which maintain multi-resistant plasmids. In order to combat resistance, researchers have studied cell wall hydrolases, and using them
A simple bacterial infection has never been a problem; just take an antibiotic. But when antibiotics are no longer available that infection will deteriorate and eventually kill you. These new strains of bacteria that can’t be treated with two or more antibiotics are called “superbugs.” While antibiotic resistance may not be at the center stage, the world has recognized the danger of these “superbugs.” In fact, the New York Times reported in September of 2016 that “193 nations at the United Nations General Assembly signed a declaration summoning each of them to a war against a powerful and resourceful enemy: superbugs."
There are many medical professionals who believe that the rise of antibiotic resistance is a result of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. Dr. Jim Wilde, a paediatric emergency medicine physician at the Medical College of Georgia believes that the medical profession is losing the war against resistance...