Modern society has been blessed with brilliant minds that have helped humans increase their life expectancy to the point where we are living well even at what is considered overpopulation. We were able to cure polio, the black plague, and other diseases that would’ve been considered a virtual death sentence a few centuries ago. Because of this, our bodies have almost no need to fight off diseases naturally. Now it isn’t being worried about at the moment because we still have tons of modern medicine to help us, but what happens when these infections become resistant to our medicine? Stronger medicines? What happens when those don’t work? At some point there is going to be a time when a previously curable disease becomes incurable and it could
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However, some of the bacterial population survives because it has a resistant trait. The population will then multiply and form more resistant bacteria until eventually all bacteria are resistant to that antibiotic. This process is called mutation. Mutations are usually the cause of genetic disorders such as sickle cell anemia, Type I diabetes, and cystic fibrosis. The most popular disease that goes through mutation is the Ebola virus, which has had an outbreak in West Africa and now in the United States. Most people know that there is no cure for it and it has already killed thousands, but few know why. What makes Ebola so scary is that it mutates at a very rapid pace much influenza except that it can lead to death in a few days. It also has a variety of symptoms that can be gastrointestinal, respiratory, and neurological. These are then labeled as malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, influenza or various bacterial infections, which are all much more common diseases in Africa. These diseases take between 2 and 21 days to diagnose, while Ebola can kill its host 6-16 days after the first symptoms. Now to explain why this ties into antimicrobial resistance, let’s keep in mind that Africa is full of third world countries. These countries are not as big on basic hygiene as developed countries so diseases are more likely to happen over there. So a virus like Ebola has time to develop and mutate within a host without anyone even knowing in some cases. Now the patients are treated with medicine for most likely malaria, a parasite, which will have no effect on someone who has Ebola, a virus. However, this will cause the host to develop a resistance to the antiparasitic medications making malaria more likely to cause death. This is possibly one of the reasons why diseases like this are common in
However, some of the bacterial population survives because it has a resistant trait. The population will then multiply and form more resistant bacteria until eventually all bacteria are resistant to that antibiotic. This process is called mutation. Mutations are usually the cause of genetic disorders such as sickle cell anemia, Type I diabetes, and cystic fibrosis. The most popular disease that goes through mutation is the Ebola virus, which has had an outbreak in West Africa and now in the United States. Most people know that there is no cure for it and it has already killed thousands, but few know why. What makes Ebola so scary is that it mutates at a very rapid pace much influenza except that it can lead to death in a few days. It also has a variety of symptoms that can be gastrointestinal, respiratory, and neurological. These are then labeled as malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, influenza or various bacterial infections, which are all much more common diseases in Africa. These diseases take between 2 and 21 days to diagnose, while Ebola can kill its host 6-16 days after the first symptoms. Now to explain why this ties into antimicrobial resistance, let’s keep in mind that Africa is full of third world countries. These countries are not as big on basic hygiene as developed countries so diseases are more likely to happen over there. So a virus like Ebola has time to develop and mutate within a host without anyone even knowing in some cases. Now the patients are treated with medicine for most likely malaria, a parasite, which will have no effect on someone who has Ebola, a virus. However, this will cause the host to develop a resistance to the antiparasitic medications making malaria more likely to cause death. This is possibly one of the reasons why diseases like this are common in