The advantages and disadvantages of antibiotics - Assignment Example

There are several forms of various antibiotics each type works in a different way. In most countries, there are only available with a medical prescription; in fact, there is a concern that antibiotics are overused. There are various types of antibiotics; all these types have benefited the human health greatly, but antibiotics can be dangerous for human’s body. Therefore, this essay will discuss several recompense and shortcomings of using antibiotics to human beings by focusing on benefits and side effects of using them.

Discussion Some benefits of antibiotics relate to the way they work; in fact, there are two types of antibiotics and they work in two different ways. Firstly, they kill bacteria by interfering with the formation of the bacterium’s cell wall or its cell content and kill the bacteria. This is called a bactericidal antibiotic, and an example of these antibiotics is penicillin; in fact, they also stop the replication of the bacteria, which is a bacteriostatic antibiotic. On the other hand, antibiotics can be classified as broad and narrow spectrum. . There are many benefits for using antibiotics; for instance, since the 1950s the antibiotics have been used to treat a wide variety of bacteria, fungi, and parasite infectious illnesses such as respiratory diseases, skin disorders, and sexually transmitted diseases.

Garbutt (2012) says that millions of lives have been saved since they were first introduced; in a number of cases antibiotics can be used as a prophylactic medication, meaning that antibiotic prevent the disease as might be the case before surgery (Medical News Today, 2009). Furthermore, Munckhof (2005) stated, “Approximately 30-50% of antibiotics used in hospital practices are meant for surgical prophylaxis.” Munckhof (2005) argues that application prophylaxis antibiotic is an effectual management strategy for tumbling postoperative disease; in fact, patients who have heart disease or had heart surgery should take an antibiotic prior to dental extractions or any dental procedure that could cause bleeding to avoid disease.

The majority of the antibiotics types are usually taken orally, which makes it comfortable for most patients to take by themselves. In addition to the oral antibiotics, some of them can be applied directly on the affected areas in the form of an ointment (Malfertheiner, Megraud, O'Morain, 2007). Although, there is a quality of antibiotics which require administration by medical staff via intravenous, respiratory tract is used to administrate the prophylactic antibiotic during surgery. Nonetheless, the benefits of narrow spectrum antibiotics are associated with their inability to kill a lot of normal microorganisms in the body as compared to the broad spectrum; in fact, this reduces chances