Colin Jennings Ms.

Ingram English 1103 25 September 2012 Is Bacteria Becoming Resistant to Antibiotics Due to Overuse and Abuse?

Brookes-Howell, L. Elwyn, G. Hood, K. Wood, F. Cooper, L. Goossens, H. Ieven, M. Butler, CC. Journal of General Internal Medicine. The Body Gets Used to Them: Patients Interpretations of Antibiotic Resistance and the Implications for Containment Strategies (2012): n. pag. Web. July 2012 Doctors in the U.K. started a study to determine the interpretations of what patients thought antibiotic resistance was and to consider strategies to contain it. The study was conducted internationally to get a better understanding of what everyone thought or believed. Most people had the central concept that antibiotics were overused, but really didnt know why bacteria was resistant to antibiotics. The majority believed that antibiotics became resistant because of the human body, not bacteria. Generally, most people were aware of the link between antibiotic use and resistance. The study showed that people understand antibiotic resistance but dont fully grasp how big of a problem antibiotics resistance is. With strategies however, public health interventions want to inform people of risk of resistance and want to teach people how to effectively use antibiotics.

Chung, Hui-Chun. Lee, Ru-Ping. Journal of Nursing. Multidrug-resistant Bacteria in the Hospital: The Focus 0f Nursing (2011): n. pag. Web. August 2011. The author goes into detail about the threat from drug resistance. Antibiotic resistance can cause high mortality rates and huge medical costs. In the past, medical staffs have been incompetent towards

infection control policies. Many multi-drug resistant bacteria has been traced back to hospitals and medical staff cross-contamination. What makes it even harder to control is the widespread antibiotic use, aging population, rising numbers of chronically ill patients, and immune compromised patients. Overall this article was not very helpful because it was written in Chinese and I couldnt understand anything it said. I used the abstract part that was written in English to start an annotation but I am most likely not going to use this source.

Lappe, Marc. Germs That Wont Die. New York: Anchor Press, 1982. Print Lappe discusses the development of resistance. He gives numerous amounts of cases where antibiotic resistant bacteria infected hospitals, retirement homes, and even local pharmaceuticals. He goes on to say that one antibiotic resistant organism caused an epidemic worldwide. Many people only thought the plague or influenza was the only global disease. Lappe shows just how antibiotic resistance has transformed. When antibiotics were first discovered in 1950, barely any bacteria were resistant to major antibiotics. By 1960, almost 80% of staph strains were showing resistance to three heavily used antibiotics. Penicillin today can only control 10% of staph infections that it used to be able to kill. Now we have different versions of penicillin but if we use them the same way they will eventually become useless as well. Lappe brings up that another reason antibiotics are used so regularly is because the drug companies throw all their products at doctors and then advertise use or product without hesitation (Lappe 96), only adds to the problem of antibiotic resistance. Lappe gives great examples to back up his explanations. He knew what he was walking about and could explain very difficult concepts with ease. This source is very credible.

Levy, Stuart. The Antibiotic Paradox: How Miracle Drugs Are Destroying the Miracle. New York: Plenum Press, 1992. Chapters 5-7. Print Levys book goes into detail about the history and use of antibiotics; however, his insights on antibiotic abuse really caught my eye. He gives numerous examples of many people believing that they need antibiotics to be cured from just a common cold. The problem is that when most doctors dont think patients need an antibiotic for a cold the patient will find another doctor who will give it to them. Doctors are scared into giving patients unnecessary antibiotics so they wont lose them as clients. Another issue he talked about was the readable accessibility of antibiotics in developing countries. People are allowed to buy very powerful antibiotics without any restrictions. He gave an example of a case in India, where the government required people to take a certain antibiotic before going on a pilgrimage to prevent illnesses from spreading. This might sound like a good idea at the time; however, this gives more bacteria more environments to become resistant to antibiotics. Also, Levy indicates that antibiotics are very useful while taken for short periods of time but if taken for long periods, they can become useless. As well as humans, antibiotics are given to animals. They are used to keep them healthy and give them more muscle (growth promotion) so farmers can get more money. 15-17 million pounds of antibiotics are used for growth promotion every year on animals. More and more cases of resistant bacteria are starting to show in animals. If animals are taking all of these antibiotics will they affect humans? Yes, even if you cook the food some bacteria strands will still survive. We see this problem not only in animals, but in agriculture too. Farmers spray plants with gallons of antibiotics to kill off bacteria that could be harmful to their plants. With this comes resistant forms of bacteria that could potentially colonize in human digestive tracts. Levy gives a substantial amount of evidence showing the threats and dangers of antibiotic resistance. His examples were relevant and gave vast amounts of evidence to support his argument. He is a practiced M.D. so most of his examples and ideas were credible and very useful.

Sengupta, Saswati, and Chattopadhyay, Madhab. Resonance: Journal of Science Education. Antibiotic Resistance of Bacteria: A Global Challenge 12.2 (2012): 177-191.n. pag. Web. The author begins their article by discussing the importance and effectiveness of antibiotics. They say that in the 1930s there was an 85% death rate due to pneumonia but when antibiotics were introduced to the disease in 1960 the death rate came down to 5%. Antibiotics are extremely helpful in the prevention and curing of diseases. They explain that antibiotics were a huge discovery in the medical field however since it was so powerful it was overused. During the second world war penicillin was used heavily to treat wounds from the battlefield. After only four years of it being introduced, there were reports of resistant strains coming about. By 1992, there had been evidence of resistance to every single useful antibiotic. The authors suggest that the widespread use of antibiotics is promoting the resistant strains. We use antibiotics for even the common cold which is of no use. When we use antibiotics when they shouldnt be used, bacteria becomes resistant. Humans also dump antibiotics onto the soil. This is also a problem because the antibiotics can support resistant bacteria by killing all of the vulnerable bacteria and leaving behind the resistant bacteria. With all of these new resistant strands of bacteria the world is in desperate need of new antibiotics that wont become useless in only a few years. Scientists are working on developing new antibiotics that are completely different from old ones. This technique should allow the antibiotics to be less resistant to bacteria and gives scientists more time to create even more antibiotics. Also doctors are starting to prescribe more than one antibiotic so that the level of resistance from bacteria is lowered. The study of antibiotic resistance is still new and under investigation. Scientist hope to know more about bacteria resistance in the years to come.

Tello, Alfredo. Austin, Brian. Telfer, Trevor. Environmental Health Perspectives. Selective Pressure of Antibiotic Pollution on Bacteria of Importance to Public Health 120.8 (2012): n. pag. Web. August 2012. This study was conducted in order to determine the prevalence of antibiotics in natural environments. Many scientists found that there was abundant amounts of antibiotics in rivers, lakes, and even farm soil. Antibiotics can enter the environment through wastewater treatment plants, hospitals, and leakage

from waste storage containers and landfills. With all of this pollution of antibiotics into the environment many strains of bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics due to pollution. This could be problematic because new bacteria strains could cause diseases and be resistant to antibiotics.

MRSA Cases in Academic Hospitals Double in 5 Years: Study. University of Chicago, July-Aug. 2012. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. <http://www.press.uchicago.edu/pressReleases/2012/July/ICHE_1207_MRSA_Cases_Double.ht ml>. This source highlighted the strain of staph infection that is completely resistant to any type of penicillin antibiotic. This strain is called MRSA and is extremely deadly. This type of infection is most common in hospitals and long-term care facilities. The scientific community has begun to call these types of bacterial infections superbugs because of their resistance. It is extremely difficult to get rid of these types of infections. Between 2003 and 2008, MRSA cases have doubled in medical centers and between 2006 to 2008 more people have been hospitalized from MRSA than AIDS and influenza combined. This source was extremely credible. The source gave great information that was needed for my research and it was published at the University of Chicago so the information in the source had to have been correct or it would not have been published by a university.