Antimicrobial Resistance: A Global Problem

Decent Essays
Antimicrobial resistance is a global problem and is causing a serious threat to the prevention and treatment of an increasing range of diseases. The misuse of antibiotics does not cause the resistance but affects the spread of resistance. Bacteria adapt, mutate and multiply rapidly, therefore the problem cannot be solved completely, but if correct procedures will be implemented, the process can be slowed down. Without the effective global action many standard medical treatments will fail, resulting in death or disability of individuals or will turn into high risk procedures. The problem creates a need for developing stronger antibiotics in the future, but it is not certain that it can be achieved, as new antibiotics are difficult to find and

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Antibiotic Resistance Antibiotic resistance (AR) is where formerly effective medications are having less and less impact on bacteria. The few gram-negative AR resistant bacteria discussed were MERSA resistant staph, KPC, and the NDM1 enzyme with its gene found on 11 different bacterias. Alexander Fleming, founder of the first antibiotic even warned us about this very thing. Now more than ever there is an increasing urgency to find an answer to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.…

    • 237 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For more than 70 years, antibiotics have been used to treat bacterial infections of the body. The first appearance of this life changing medicine, was in the 1940’s on the battlefield. This medicine was named penicillin, the drug saved many from the brink of death, by fighting bacterial diseases; from then on antibiotics changed the face of medicine. Infection was no longer an impregnable wall that had to be broken down before the real treatment could begin, infections could be treated on site, at moments notice. As time passed, the world became co-dependent on the use of antibiotics to treat all of the body 's infections, and was repeatedly misused.…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dalise Atwell BIO 212 Dr. Boles Excelsior College Penicillin and its Impact on Microbiology Penicillin has saved many lives past and current. “Before the discovery and use of penicillin, infectious diseases had been the leading cause of death throughout history. Furthermore, the therapeutic tools available for treating infections were few and of limited use. ”(Kardos 2011) Penicillin has been the drug of choice when treating many diseases.…

    • 1218 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Infectious Diseases Society of America 's (IDSA) ultimately desires to create public policy and research activities that will salvage the damage of the overuse of antibiotics and save lives (Clinical). The GAIN act should be bolstered to make sure that antibiotics are being used appropriately (Clinical). An ‘Antibiotic Innovation and Conservation (AIC) Fee’ should be created where 75 percent of the funding should go towards the monetary funds of antibiotic development and the other 25 percent should be applied towards the funding of antimicrobial stewardship (Clinical). Public Health Antimicrobial Advisory Board (PHAAB) should recognize “priority pathogens” to pinpoint “incentives” within the Strategies to Address Antimicrobial Resistance (STAAR)…

    • 1390 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Funding is essential to this so it is important that funding is increased and maintained in the area to support work into finding solutions to antibiotic resistance. From 2010-2014 the spending by the National Institute of Health on antibiotic resistance was $1.7 billion compared to $26.5 billion spent on cancer research (13). This disproportionate allocation of funding demonstrates that, whereas cancer is very important, antibiotic resistance is receiving far too little attention. This imbalance suggests that because the effects of this problem are more subtle they draw less attention. This shows that there is not appropriate focus on antibiotic resistance which is a very important issue that will only worsen without more…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The plot of this book was well structured with the authors delivering educative facts about what antibiotics are in general, the impacts they do have on diseases such as tuberculosis, bacterial pneumonia and how they make surgery and cancer chemotherapy safe. They continue to further educate their readers about the early days research to discover antibiotics from the soil to how they accidentally discovered the penicillin in the lab and how widely it got known during the global war era. ‘Thanks to PENICILLIN…he will come home’ was written on a famous poster during the war. After the discovery of antibiotics, little did we know that for the fact that the microbes have been around way before humans and plants existed, the resistance to antibiotics would emerge even after the misuse in humans, agriculture and…

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, over time bacteria mutate to protect themselves against antibiotics, making treatment no longer effective. Professor Qiao stated "It is estimated that the rise of superbugs will cause up to ten million deaths a year by 2050. In addition, there have only been one or two new antibiotics developed in the last 30 years”. The University of Queensland located in Australia. (July 21, 2015).…

    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Antibiotic resistance: Which antibiotic type and does are most effective? Background: The impending crisis with antibiotic resistance must be addressed with the most effective use antimicrobial agents. This can be achieved with utilizing effective doses and reducing hospital errors (Burke, 2001). Medical errors are the greatest contributor to the development of resistance in bacteria (Burke, 2001).…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Triclosan Essay

    • 1687 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Continuing to use the same antibiotics will no longer be effective, and new drugs must be developed to combat this evolutionary problem. Astonishingly enough though, research and development of antibiotics is grinding to a…

    • 1687 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why Germs Are Bad

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Germs are everywhere. Fortunately, most pose no risks to people. And those that do cause disease usually can be killed with antibiotic drugs. Sometimes, however, harmful bacteria evolve ways to “laugh at” antibiotics — survive as if the poisons were not even there. This so-called drug resistance make infections hard, if not impossible, to treat.…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The health of people and animals are extremely important. ”Antibiotic Resistance refers to bacteria that evolve to the point they are not easily killed by antibiotics” (Dorman N.pag.). Antibiotics in livestock are a crucial part of the livestock industry, but with antibiotic resistance in humans occurring more and more often researchers believe that antibiotics in meat are the leading source of this issue. Although, antibiotics has the issue of resistance, there are more positive sides to the issue than some people think.…

    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As bacteria is growing to become resistant to a large array of antibiotics, this is caused by the bacteria building a resistance to the antibiotics that are currently being used…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As bacteria continues to adapt, it has become more difficult for antibiotics to properly treat infections. Antibiotics are prescription medications that help fight against bacterial infections. Higher levels of antibiotic resistance are transpiring due to improper usage of antibiotics (U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA], 2012). Antibiotic resistance happens when an antibiotic can no longer properly eliminate bacterial or microbial growth (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], April 2015). This occurs when bacteria adapt in a manner that limits the effectiveness of the…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Antimicrobial resistance has long been a topic of research due to the increase prescription of antibiotics. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, antimicrobial resistance is defined as a microbe’s ability to change when exposed to antibiotics and allow them to resist the effects1. This causes the antibiotics to be unsuccessful in treating bacteria. Antimicrobial resistance happens when a bacterium has the ability to survive against antibiotics causing a selectivity for the resistant strains to be able to grow and reproduce2. This is mostly due to microbes constantly evolving and the ability for bacterial cells to gain new genes rapidly through horizontal gene transfer.…

    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The discovery of the antibiotics has always been considered as one of the wonders that the 20th century has discovered. Antibiotics or antibacterial, are medicinal remedies that either destroy or slow down the growth of bacteria. But the real wonder is the rise of the discovery of the antibiotic resistance. It is a concern, worldwide, that antibiotics are being overused. This over usage contributes to the growing number of bacterial infections that are becoming resistant to antibacterial remedies.…

    • 230 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays