Misuse Of Antibiotics

Antibiotics are very useful and powerful drugs that help kill many different infections. In the 1940’s, before antibiotics were invented, many people died from bacterial infections (Goldsmith 7). “In the past twenty five-years, the widespread misuse of antibiotics has turned many formerly curable bacterial diseases into nearly untreatable ones” (Goldsmith 9). “Bacteria have shown the ability to become resistant to every antibiotic that has been developed” (CDC 41). According to the Centers for Disease Control, this has created a worldwide problem; some refer to them as “nightmare bacteria” (11). Each year, approximately two million people get infections that are resistant to antibiotics and twenty-three thousand die (CDC 11). The overuse …show more content…
Around 50 percent of the antibiotics used are not really needed or are used incorrectly (CDC 11). Anytime someone takes an antibiotic that is not needed, their risk increases of getting a resistant infection in the future (CDC 25). Antibiotics do not know whether they are attacking good or bad bacteria, so they just attack it all (Kowalski 32). The attack on good bacteria can cause people to develop C. difficile, which causes severe diarrhea, and leads to at least fourteen thousand deaths per year (CDC 26). Doctors often prescribe antibiotics when they are not even needed or prescribe the wrong one. Tests are not ordered to verify that it is actually bacteria causing the problem (CDC 34). A lot of bacterial infections have developed resistance to one or more of the antibiotics that used to treat them effectively (Goldsmith 49). This causes a problem, because when antibiotics quit working, the routine infectious diseases will not be treated easily (CDC 24). Along with the misuse of prescription antibiotics, the use of antimicrobial products like soaps, hand sanitizers, detergents, and household cleaners have led to increased resistance (Battle of the Bugs …show more content…
This program needs to be expanded to television, radios, and newspapers so everyone will be aware of the problem. Also, paying attention to personal habits is a good way to prevent you from getting sick so antibiotics are not needed. Things like washing your hands, washing fruits and vegetables, making sure fish, meat, and eggs are fully cooked, throwing out foods that are past their due dates, exercising, and eating healthy are simple ways to avoid sickness altogether (Kowalski 94-95). Guidelines need to be changed so that antibiotics can only be used in food producing animals to treat diseases, not as growth promoters. The rules need to be changed so antibiotics must be prescribed by a veterinary doctor, not just being available to the farmers without a prescription (CDC