Skip to main content

Will Your Antibiotics Stop Working?


          Whenever you make a trip to the doctor there is a good chance that you will come out of the office with a prescription. Most of the time these prescriptions are for antibiotics. Antibiotics normally make you feel better within a few days of taking them. This is because antibiotics are products that kill or inhibit the growth of the bacteria that caused the sickness within your body, which is a very good thing. But what if your antibiotics no longer helped? This is something that may occur in the future.
          They always say that practice makes perfect. Have you ever played a video game and died on a level? Well after multiple times of playing the level you eventually live and move on in the game. You will look back and wonder how you even got stuck on that level in the first place. This is a sensually how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. Antibiotics are the challenges in the levels and the bacteria are you. After the bacteria see the level multiple times it will finally find a way to survive an continue playing the game, or growing in the body. These bacteria are than called mutants, these mutants will no longer be killed by the antibiotics. Antibiotics will no longer be effective due to mutants of the bacteria that are able to survive after the uses of antibiotics. Mutants will continue to grow after the antibiotic is used and will not be affected the next time the antibiotic is introduced ether. Meaning the antibiotic will no longer be a challenge for the bacteria.
          Antibiotics can either be broad-spectrum or narrow-spectrum. The resistant’s to antibiotics can occurred when broad-spectrum antibiotics are commonly used. Broad-spectrum antibiotics effect all the bacteria in the body when they are used. While narrow-spectrum bacteria have a target. These antibiotics are on a mission to go after certain bacteria only. When broad-spectrum antibiotics are used they are creating more bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics since this bacterium are getting more exposure. Meaning that they will change an no longer be affected by the use of antibiotics in the future. So, it is better to use the narrow-spectrum antibiotics so only the bacteria we want to remove are affected.
          There are also cases where antibiotics can be over used causing resistance. Antibiotics can only be used to treat conditions that are caused by bacteria. This is the reason why sometimes you go in to the doctor and they don’t give you any medication because your illness is most likely caused by a virus. Viruses are very different that bacteria and the anatomy of the bacteria that effected by antibiotics are not present in viruses. The viruses are uneffaced by the antibiotics that are taken. Instead the bacteria in the body are affected by the antibiotics. This exposure to the antibiotics is another way that the bacteria can become resistant.
          Antibiotics are very efficient in killing harmful bacteria. It would be beneficial to society if the antibiotics were still applicable in treating bacterial infections. The way to keep antibiotics in use would be to correct and limit the use of them. By only using antibiotics when necessary and trying to use narrow-spectrum antibiotic when possible.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Family Disease

My mother has a 50/50 chance of growing old. That means I also have a 50/50 chance of having the same outcome as her. Why? Huntington’s Disease, or HD. HD is also known as the family disease because just like having the same eye color as your dad, you can have the same disease as him. This disease runs in the family, meaning that it can be passed down from generation to generation. In a family, the disease will die off if it happens to never get passed down. For example, the father in the family has HD, he has one kid so that child has a 50% chance of developing the disease. If the child does develop the disease, then his children all have a 50% chance of also developing that disease. But if the father never passes down HD to his only child then the disease can never be passed down again, the disease can not skip generations. Everyone technically has the gene that causes HD but only the people who get passed down the expansion of the gene will eventually develop HD. More than 200,...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Impact of Female Scientists in Today's Society

When I was a little girl I had the dream that I could become anything I aspired to be whether it was a lawyer, doctor, president, or scientist.   Women haven’t always been able to go to school and have jobs like men do but there were women that pushed passed those boundaries and taught other women that they can be better than men.               Marie Curie was a brilliant scientist born in 1867 and the only education she received was general education and a miniscule amount of scientific training from her father who was a schoolteacher.   In 1891, she acquired licentiateships in physics and mathematics and later in 1894 surpassed her husband to become the new Head of Physics.   She then gained her Doctor of Science degree in 1903 and following her husband’s death she became the Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences where she was the first woman to hold this position.   ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why do Invasive Plants Species Matter?

 Biologists have spent a large amount of time discovering these invasive species as well as analyzing them to gather as much information as possible on these species. So, first what is an invasive species let alone an invasive plant? An invasive species is defined as a non-native plant to the ecosystem, and the introduction of causes are to health of humans or the ecosystem or economic damage. Given that one of the defining features of an invasive species is does it cause harm, this a serious issue if certain species find there way into an ecosystem. There are several species of plants that are labeled as invasive in the united states. Some examples are, Purple Loosestrife, Japanese Honeysuckle, Norway Maple, and Reed Canarygrass. These species are very effective at invading and their spread and control of their ecosystems. So, how and why can these plants take control of ecosystem? Usually these invasive plants find their way into disturbed ecosystems such as ones that are distu...
Post a Comment
Read more