Antibiotic Resistance of Bacteria - Research Paper Example

This can partly be attributed to the fact that microbes and bacteria which spread the infections are quite flexible in nature and have a great tendency to resist the effect of antibiotics. Another factor that has increased the resistance of microbes and bacteria against the antibiotics is the increased use of antibiotics. 12500 tons of antibiotics were prescribed in the US in the year 1998. More than 60 percent of the use of antibiotics in the US can be attributed to the agricultural practices resulting in an increase of 18000 tons of antibiotic use yearly (Todar, 2009).

These days, almost 70 percent of the infection-causing bacteria are able to resist some common antibiotic drug. Antibiotics were found originally as a result of an experiment conducted in 1928 by Alexander Fleming. In the 1940s, the findings generated by this experiment were employed for mass-production of penicillin using the Penicillium notatum as a mold. Strains resistance of bacteria were started to be found in the late 1940s. As of today, over 70 percent bacteria which are responsible for the spread of the hospital-based infections resist at least one antibiotic.

There are myriad of reasons for the continued spread of the antibiotic resistance. These reasons include but are not limited to the excessive recommendation of the antibiotics’ by the doctors, retarded compliance of the patients with the prescribed treatments, employment of the antibiotics as growth drivers in the animals, insufficient hygiene of the hospital environment and enhanced international voyage. There are two fundamental ways in which the resistance of bacteria can be improved.

The first way is by employing a built-in feature that facilitates the exchange of resistance genes among the bacterial DNA. The second way is by mutation. Antibiotics kill the cells of the bacteria by causing a distortion in the critical function. “This is achieved in the cell in much the same way that a saboteur can cause a massive jetliner to crash by simply cutting the hydraulic lines” (Purdom, 2007). Antibiotic resistance of bacteria works only by causing a disruption in the functional systems.

Evolution of the bacteria into man needs strengthening of these systems. It becomes difficult for the antibiotic to link with the altered protein when the bacteria “have a mutation in the DNA which codes for one of those proteins” (Purdom, 2007). Public health is exposed to a lot of threats with the increase in antimicrobial resistance because it declines the efficiency of the antimicrobial treatment and increases the mortality rate, morbidity and the cost of healthcare in the long run.

The mortality rate jumped from 0.2 percent to 3.4 per cent upon the outbreak of resistant Salmonella spp. Strains. “In 1995 the cost of containing an outbreak of infection caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus in a district general hospital in the United Kingdom was estimated to exceed US$ 560 000…while the annual health care cost associated with the treatment of resistant infections in the USA was estimated at over US$ 4 billion” (Smith and Coast, 2002, p. 126).