Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria
For about 50 years, antibiotics have been the answer to many bacterial
infections. Antibiotics
are chemical substances that are secreted by living
things. Doctors prescribed these medicines to
cure many diseases. During
World War II, it treated one of the biggest killers during wartime -
infected
wounds. It was the beginning of the antibiotic era. But just when antibiotics
were being
mass produced, bacteria started to evolve and became resistant to
these medicines.
Antibiotic resistance can be the result of different
things. One cause of resistance could be drug
abuse. There are people who
believe that when they get sick, antibiotics are the answer. The
more times
you use a drug, the more it will decrease the effect it has on you. That is
because the
bacteria has found a way to avoid the effects of that antibiotic.
Another cause of resistance is the
improper use of drugs. When patients feel
that the symptoms of their disease have improved,
they often stop taking the
drug. Just because the symptoms have disappeared it does not mean the
disease
has gone away. Prescribed drugs should be taken until all the medicine is gone
so the
disease is completely finished. If it is not, then this will just give
the bacteria some time to find a
way to avoid the effects of the
drug.
One antibiotic that will always have a long lasting effect in
history is penicillin. This was the
first antibiotic ever to be discovered.
Alexander Fleming was the person responsible for the
discovery in 1928. In
his laboratory, he noticed that in some of his bacteria colonies, that he
was
growing, were some clear spots. He realized that something had killed the
bacteria in these clear
spots, which ended up to be a fungus growth. He then
discovered that inside this mold was a
substance that killed
bacteria.
It was the antibiotic, penicillin.
Penicillin became the
most powerful germ-killer known at that time. Antibiotics
kill
disease-causing bacteria by interfering with their processes. Penicillin
kills bacteria by
attaching to their cell walls. Then it destroys part of the
wall. The cell wall breaks apart and
bacteria dies.
After four years,
when drug companies started to mass produce penicillin, in 1943, the first
signs
of penicillin-resistant bacteria started to show up. The first bacteria
that fought penicillin was
called Staphylococcus aureus. This bug is usually
harmless but can cause an illness such as
pneumonia. In 1967, another
penicillin-resistant bacteria formed. It was called pneumococcus
and it broke
out in a small village in Papua New Guinea. Other penicillin resistant bacteria
that
formed are Enterococcus faecium and a new strain of
gonorrhea.
Antibiotic resistance can occur by a mutation of DNA in
bacteria or DNA acquired from another
bacteria that is drug-resistant through
transformation. Penicillin-resistant bacteria can alter their
cell walls so
penicillin can not attach to it. The bacteria can also produce different enzymes
that
can take apart the antibiotic.
Since antibiotics became so
prosperous, all other strategies to fight bacterial diseases were put
aside.
Now since the effects of antibiotics are decreasing and antibiotic resistance is
increasing,
new research on how to battle bacteria is
starting.
Antibiotic resistance spreads fast but efforts are being made
to slow it. Improving infection
control, discovering new antibiotics, and
taking drugs more appropriately are ways to prevent
resistant bacteria from
spreading. In developing nations, approaches are being made to
control
infections such as hand washing by health care people, and
identifying drug resistant infections
quickly to keep them away from others.
The World Health Organization has began a global
computer program that
reports any outbreaks of drug-resistant bacterial infections.
In the
early 1900's, the discovery of penicillin began the antibiotic era. People
thought they have
finally won the battle with bacteria. But now since
antibiotic resistance is increasing rapidly,
new strategies must be developed
to destroy these microbes. To many scientists the antibiotic
era is
over
Bibliography
Bylinsky, Gene. Sept. 5,1995. The new fight
against killer microbes.
Fortune. p. 74-76.
Dixon, Bernard. March
17,1995. Return of the killer bugs.
New Statesman & Society. p.
29-32.
Levy, Stuart B. Jan. 15,1995. Dawn of the post-antibiotic
era?
Patient Care. p. 84-86.
Lewis, Ricki. Sept. 1995. The rise of
antibiotic-resistant infections.
FDA Consumer. p. 11-15.
Miller,
Julie Ann. June 1995. Preparing for the postantibiotic era.
BioScience.
p. 384-392.
an excellent news article summary, got me a 100, by strife007