Antibiotics Overuse - Essay Example

Antibiotics can be defined as chemicals that kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria and are used to treat bacterial infections (microbiologyonine.org, par. 1). Many people, today, are dependent on antibiotics for every illness, whether light or severe. In fact, according to Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, In US, about 47 million antibiotics are unnecessarily consumed by people (Use Antibiotics Wisely par. 2). The use of antibiotics is skyrocketing today due to drug companies promoting unnecessary medicines and common misconceptions of people. Antibiotics, being widely used today has been causing a problem of antibiotic resistance, increasing the cases of untreatable diseases and driving up the hospital costs. To overcome the problem, public awareness about the intended and overuse of antibiotics, strict checking by police departments, use of organic alternatives along with some other initiatives should be taken on an individual level, as well as, on the whole.

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One of the most prevailing problem today, due to the overuse of antibiotics is the antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance means the bacteria in the body are becoming resistant to the antibiotics, meaning the bacteria are not killed by the antibiotics. Misuse of antibiotics has increased the number of drug-resistant germs exposing people to higher health risk. Antibiotics such as penicillin have been valuable in preventing severe complications of the disease; nevertheless, these medicines become less effective especially when it cannot destroy some strain of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Such antibiotic resistant bacteria neutralize the action of the drug and pass on these resistant properties when they multiply. The effects of prescription use only resulted to the development of a resistant strain of bacteria (Friedman, et al. 1). For example, if a person has a viral infection, and he is taking antibiotics for it, then misdirected treatment leads to the development of anti-resistant property in harmless bacteria. Hence, Antibiotic resistance is increasing in the alarming rate today, creating various diseases that people are not aware of and often going untreated as it takes a lot of time to figure the medicine against it.

Similarly, other unintended consequences of antibiotic overuse include fatal diarrhea situations in kids, a difference of delicate gut flora, transmission of resistance genes to other bacteria and increase in the number of untreatable infection. This causes greater medical cost due to more hospitalization rates (Shane 64). The effect of antibiotic overuse is not only limited to the humans, but also to the animals. Antibiotic use in the sick animals is common and necessary. However, when some animals get sick, all the herd is treated with antibiotics whether they be sick or not. Similarly, antibiotics are also used in the cattle without prescription for the prevention of bacterial infection to ensure there would not be any poor products in future. Therefore, overuse of antibiotics now has been creating many serious problems of causing untreatable diseases in human as well as in animals and driving up the hospital costs.

There are several causes of antibiotics being used more than it is intended to. One of the reasons for antibiotics exploitation is the drug companies promoting the use of unnecessary antibiotics. The drug companies give free samples to the doctors to use which is very redundant. The use of new drugs can make it more probable for the antibiotic resistance to develop. Similarly, many patients have the misconception that if the doctor does not prescribe the medication, the doctor is not treating them well. For instance, Robert Dristan, an emergency room physician," says, he sees and treats patients with "colds, bronchitis, [and] flu" and often tells his patients not to use any antibiotics as antibiotics cannot treat viruses. He says that the patients then said him they would not be visiting him again and wanted their money back (Fuhrman par. 4-6).

In addition to that, another reason for antibiotics being overly used is due to its easy accessibility, even without a prescription. Many people go to the bodega and buy antibiotics they need without a prescription. Carlota Hurtado, an occupant of Washington Heights, who gets antibiotics from bodega without prescription, says he buys medicine from bodega when he gets cold or a sore throat, takes them until he feels better and later, throws them away. Most of the antibiotics are sold for low prices in the Upper West Side, Washington Heights, East Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx (par. 3). These antibiotics are produced in the Dominica Republic, smuggled inside the States in small quantities and sold as over-the-counter pain relievers (par. 4). Despite this problem, the sale of antibiotics without prescriptions go highly unchecked. In fact, when people frequently reported grievances to the attorney general, they either detained or arrested those selling them (par. 23). Due to the absence of act by the police department, the abuse of antibiotics is getting larger day by day. (Markel)

Likewise, antibacterial products are used by a lot of people in a wide range today. It has been a daily necessity of individuals. Many people use antibacterial soaps, antibacterial toothpaste, antibacterial shampoo, and much more. However, they are not aware of the facts that they are useless. The misconception of people has been promoting the companies to produce more antibacterial products. According to the article, Medicine: Dont Fret The Soap, antibacterial detergents we use in our daily life is unhelpful at all. In fact, there is no relation between antibacterial soaps and superbugs (Soukup par. 1). The antibacterial products are not harmful, but, they are not useful either. People believe that use of antibacterial products makes them less probable to the diseases. The common myth of the people is making the market of redundant antibiotic products bigger. (Soukup 1)

Despite knowing the problem caused by antibiotics, people still tend to use them. Living in a fast and the busy world today, people have their daily things to do, and they do not want to stay home and wait until they feel better. Hence, they take medicine even when they get cold, cough, headache or light flu. Many people believe that antibiotics promote health and they should use antibiotics. To their answer, yes, antibiotics are needed and necessary. However, when they are overused, it becomes redundant and dangerous.

To solve the problem of increased antibiotic resistant bacteria due to overuse of antibiotic, it is necessary that hospitals, physician, as well as the pharmacist, take steps to control the sale of antibiotics without a valid prescription. Doctors and health agency also need to make people aware of the correct usage of the drug. It is also vital for people to know that viral infections like cold, coughs, sinus infection and stomach flu are cannot be treated with antibiotics. Overuse is also occurring because physicians tend to prescribe drug before determining the cause of disease as many patients want quick relief. CITATION Fek14 \l 1033 (Fekete)To reduce complication like serious illness or disability, longer hospitalization, frequent visit to physician caused due to drug-resistant infection, it is necessary that adequate steps are taken to hospitals and physicians to reduce overuse of drugs (Laxminarayan 1057-1098). Similarly, for preventing the spread of antibiotic resistance,

Antibiotics overuse must be attacked on many fronts since it is a serious problem in our society. Center for disease control; and prevention (CDC) launched a broad educational program called Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work in 2013. The program provides with necessary resource to support appropriate prescription to the outpatient and complementary educational materials for the general public. CITATION Pro14 \l 1033 (Proctor)State-based and professional societies links appropriate antibiotic use campaigns every year during Getting Smart About Antibiotic Week. CDC has introduced Get Smart for Healthcare a new campaign on improving antimicrobial use in outpatient settings through the implementation of an antimicrobial intervention.Is designed to ensure that patients get the right antibiotic at the right time, the right dosage and for the right duration. As a result, motility rate is reduced, shorter hospital stays and reduced antimicrobial resistance within the facility.

About 50% of antibiotics is estimated to be unnecessarily prescribed to both outpatient and inpatient. This is true for upper respiratory infection like cold and cough illness, which are caused by the virus. This is a misuse of antibiotics drug since these infections resolve without antibiotics. Perceived patient expectations and lack of time by clinicians result to antibiotics prescriptions even when not needed CITATION ibb \l 1033 (ibbs). Improvement and intervention have been made in this important area number of projects have been conducted to determine the method to decrease the public demand for antibiotics for example study carried out in Colorado to identify ways to reduce antibiotics for uncomplicated acute bronchitis. In this study, there was a decline in prescribed antibiotics for bronchitis (from 74% to 48%).Clinicians and patient awareness and education is the most efficient method to carb antibiotics misuse. Clinicians are advised to stay alerted to new treatment plans established by CDC and professional societies. Reviews of courses and guidelines and that emphasis to these guidelines are available. Studies have shown that diseases such as pneumonia and urinary tract treating them on short courses are less toxic and efficient than longer courses. Hence its important for clinicians to be aware of the way that can help for ideal therapy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, many people if asked who is accountable for the problem of antimicrobial overuse, they will give different responses. Some blame patients who request antibiotics when they are not prescribed; some blames healthcare providers who either misdiagnosis or due to negligence and other faults absence of quick diagnostics to notify prescribing conclusions. Obviously, there many contributing factors regarding this problem and hence require complex solutions. The Get Smart educational objective is to do exactly that, and whatever remains is for health experts and the public to be responsible, become educated, and be aware for the seek future generations.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY Fekete, Thomas. "Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues." Clinical Infectious Diseases." ciu (2014): 164.

ibbs, Abigail. OVERUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS. n.d.

Proctor, Lita M. "Mycins v Microbes Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues by Martin J. Blaser." he FASEB Journal 28.9 (2014): 3821-3822.