Long-Term Effects of the Over-Use of Antibiotics on Pathogen Resistance - Assignment Example

?Antibiotics Assess the Long-Term Effects of the Over-Use of Antibiotics on Pathogen Resistance The 20th century can be described as a period of greatest discoveries. One of those discoveries has been on antibiotics. These drugs have been used to control disease-causing organism. The antibiotics are typically used to contain bacteria infection in human beings and other domestic animals (Engelkirk et al., 2011). However, some of infections caused by the bacteria have been able to evade the use of antibiotics in both human and animals. This has been a key area of concern in the 21st century. This has complicated the treatment methods of diseases that were managed by the antibiotics in prior periods. Such diseases evading the use of antibiotics are proving difficult to diagnose to the health care providers. Moreover, it is difficult to treat the disease that has been able to evade the use of antibiotics. The resistance by the bacteria to the use of antibiotics has been through molecular changes to their genetic structure (Engelkirk et al., 2011). Once the resistance is acquired, it is then propagated to the offspring’s through exchange of genetic material. The modern form of resistance has resulted to the development of multiple drug resistant bacterial strains (Engelkirk et al., 2011). The subsequent use has resulted to multiple drug resistant organisms. The overuse of these drugs has resulted to ideal situations for the bacteria to survive and grow even when the antibiotics are available. This occurs through chromosomal mutation, and exchange of genetic material (Behera, 2010). This is due to lack of the drugs penetration. This mechanism of resistance is seen in Enterococcus species and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Behera, 2010). The clear effects on the overuse of antibiotics are on penicillin resistance. Through overuse of penicillin, there has been the development of various strains of bacteria that are resistant to the drug. Penicillin was originally for the control of bacteria spread. The drug effects on bacteria were to inhibit the growth of the cell wall. After a long use of the drug, there was a recognition of several cases of resistance. Some bacteria managed to breakdown the penicillin while others were able to mimic the characteristics of the antibiotic (Behera, 2010). The staph bacteria developed a capacity of breaking the structure of the penicillin. This prompted the establishment of a new kind of penicillin called methicillin. However, resistance to the drug was also noted. The resistance prompted the production of different antibiotics. The continued overuse also helped other bacteria acquire branched neuropeptides (Behera, 2010). The neuropeptides prevented the penicillin from easily binding to the wall. Others bacteria were also able to rebuild their penicillin binding proteins that are the subject of the antibiotics. This helped the bacteria to survive even after the penicillin targeted the site. There are crucial factors that contributed to the development of resistance towards penicillin. The most common one was the availability of penicillin over the counter in the second half of the 20th century. This made it available to people without any form of prescription. There was also over prescription of the drug by the doctors. The continuous overuse of the drug helped in favouring and selection of the strain that developed resistance (Behera, 2010). The resistant strain developed through evolution and the property passed to the subsequent generation. Once the generation is developed, it is extremely difficult to treat and diagnose disease resulting from such strain. Moreover, it is expensive to treat diseases that result from different resistant strains. It has also been established that conditions resulting from multiple strain are difficult to cure. In addition, the overuse of antibiotics has led to increased water contamination, and propagation of antibiotic resistant organisms. This has led to increase waterborne and food borne infections by resistant bacteria (Saene et al., 2005). On the other hand, the continuous use of antibiotics by the veterinarian has had serious ramifications. This takes place when they use antibiotics as growth promoters. Most of these antibiotics are put on the animal feeds. This leads to increased antibiotics resistance in animal bacteria and may even result to antibiotic resistance in human pathogens (Saene et al., 2005). The antibiotic resistance bacteria are also likely to be transferred from animals to human through occupational exposure and food chain (Saene et al., 2005). Additionally, the resistant genes may also move from bacteria of animals to human pathogens in the intestinal cavities of humans (Saene et al., 2005). This has led to increased cases of drug resistant infections. The overuse of antibiotics also results in the evolution of pathogens that are more virulent. This has been demonstrated by use of Staphylococcus aureus. This organism is linked to normal skin condition. Recently, it has developed into a serious multidrug resistant pathogen. This pathogen has managed to counter various forms of penicillin. This pathogen has even moved out of the hospital to the community setting with an increased rate of virulence and transmission (Park, 2007). The continuous development of antibiotic resistant pathogen has also been a challenge to the medical profession. This is because increased resistance has resulted to most of the antibiotics in hospital counter becoming useless for the treatment of some common infection. This calls for development of new antibiotics for the treatment of the same condition caused by the pathogen. For example, natural penicillin has become meaningless against staphylococci species (Park, 2007). Explain the Effects of the Use of Antibodies in the Control of a Disease Antibodies for a long time have been used in the control of diseases. The first use of antibodies for treating disease was in 1890. Several factors have led to adoption of antibodies for disease treatment. They include increased resistance by disease causing organisms to antibiotics, lack of essential drugs, toxicity of drugs, and the need to boost the immune system of affected individuals (Gad, 2007). These antibodies act directly on pathogenic stages that are vulnerable (Gad, 2007). This helps in preventing pathogen intrusion into the body of human being. In diseases caused by bacteria, the antibodies help in neutralizing toxins and promote the breakdown of pathogens hence reducing the rate of infection (Gad, 2007). They also play a significant role in preventing viral disease as they stop their entry into the host cells (Gad, 2007). The importance of antibodies is showing of specificity in their action of controlling diseases. The advantage of specificity is that it prevents the development of resistance among non-target microorganism (Gad, 2007). However, there are effects of specificity as shown by monoclonal antibodies. Increased specificity may not be proficient in multiple infections, and hence such diseases are difficult to treat using a single antibody dose (Gad, 2007). The other effects of specificity arise when there occur a pathogen variant that lack pathway that cannot be determined by the antibody (Gad, 2007). On the other hand, the use of antibodies has led to control of some form of cancers. This has been possible using recombinant antibodies with high affinity. The other effect of use of antibodies for treatment of disease has been the emergence of unexpected side effects. For example, the use of anti-TNF alpha antibodies has led to the cases of tuberculosis being reported (Subramanian, 2004). There has also been an increased occurrence of autoimmune diseases due to the use of antibody in controlling diseases. References BEHERA, D. (2010) Textbook of Pulmonary Medicine, Volume 1. New Delhi: JP Medical Ltd. ENGELKIRK, P. et al. (2011) Microbiology for the Health Sciences. New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. GAD, S. (2007) Handbook of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2007. PARK, T. (2007) Foundations in Microbiology. New York: Rex Bookstore, Inc. SAENE, V. et al. (2005) Infection Control in the Intensive Care Unit. New York: Springer. SUBRAMANIAN, G. (2004) Antibodies. New York: Springer. Read More