Antibiotic, the super drug of the century is starting to be more ineffective in doing its job of killing or inhibiting bacteria. Overuse and misuse of it gives bacteria a chance to become resistant to the antibiotics that normally could kill them. This is turning normal bacteria into superbugs that cannot be killed by antibiotics. The good news is that this high rise in superbugs could be hindered if people were more aware of what antibiotics are and how they work.

The first antibiotic was penicillin, which was discovered by accident from a mold culture. Since then, antibiotics have been prescribed more than any other drug on the market.. Health care professionals now have over 100 different kinds of antibiotics that cure a wide range of deadly diseases, or even minor discomforts (Stephens). Antibiotic is a powerful medicine that fights infections caused by bacteria, not viral or fungal infections. Some examples are, Colds, Flu, most coughs and bronchitis, and most sore throats.

Because antibiotic cured so many diseases when it first came to use, it made many people think that it was the miracle drug that cured almost all the diseases. Doctors started to over prescribe it to patients without making sure that they had a bacterial infection, meat companies started to put antibiotics in the food of their live stock, so that they would be less susceptible to infectious diseases, and people started to overstock on antibiotics prescribed by Doctors and then used them at their own will, which led to overuse and misuse of antibiotics. All this is leading to a serious issue in today's world where antibiotics are misused and overused in humans and in animals raised for food. Antibiotics that are not abused or misused, have the ability to save countless lives, instead of giving bacteria a chance to form resistance, which leaves physicians helpless in stopping infectious diseases (McConnell).

This over prescription of antibiotics is giving bacteria a chance to overcome the effects of antibiotics by the constant metamorphosis they go through. They keep going through mutations that get passed down from generation to generation. When an antibiotic is used on a strain of bacteria, it kills all the bacteria but the few that had an advantage in their DNA mutation. Now there is a new strain of bacteria that needs a new kind of antibiotic to kill it. Over time, entire populations of bacteria will form resistance to a specific antibiotic if they are overly exposed to it. Doctors tried to over ride this by prescribing different antibiotics, but this was not effective in the long run because the more pressure you apply, the more you end up getting superbugs that are resistant to many different antibiotics. Most of this resistance forms when antibiotics are used how they should not be used, like when people don't follow the exact orders of the Doctor on how to take antibiotic. They stop taking the drug before all the pills are used and this will leave the strongest germs to grow and further evolve with a resistance to the antibiotic (Gershman).

All this misuse of antibiotics is helping superbugs like staphylococcus to form resistance. In return, this is raising the chances of death for hospital patients that get infected with MRSA, a staph infection. They are now four times more likely to die of these antibiotic resistant bacteria. The other bad news is the fact that resistant strains of bacteria are now thriving outside of hospitals as well, and killing healthy people (Clemmitt). This is a very troubling fact that will lead to a future in which antibiotics will have no power over a high majority of bacteria. If people had more information on how antibiotics work and how to not use them, we could significantly slow down the process of bacterial evolution that resist antibiotic

pur-new-sol

Related Questions