Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance is precisely what it sounds like: the resistance towards some antibiotics bacteria may develop. This can lead to antibiotics being rendered useless while a person tries to fend off a disease. Over the years, this dilemma has only intensified as numerous bacteria have become resistant to countless antibiotics. Therefore, researchers and scientists alike have endeavored in figuring out not only the main culprit of antibiotic resistance, but also the multiple techniques to minimize antibiotic resistance along with the ramifications of antibiotic resistance in former and future generations. Antibiotic resistance is not a dilemma that has appeared spontaneously and without warning. The first known case of a bacteria becoming

The main culprit is the overuse of antibiotics to treat diseases. This overuse not only comes from doctors over-prescribing the antibiotics, but also people who use personal antibiotics for unknown illnesses without their doctor’s approval. By doing this, people are building up a bacteria’s resistance to that antibiotic because they may not be using it properly and once you use antibiotics multiple times, resistance can possibly follow (Lee). If antibiotics continue to be misused, people could be looking at a time in the near future where it is similar to the pre-antibiotic era (Lee). However, while researchers now know the main culprit of antibiotic resistance, they also know multiple techniques to minimize it as

Antibiotic resistance is not designated to specific countries, as it has been, and is still, a global dilemma. For example, in 2007 the extra costs due to diseases associated with antibiotic resistance in Europe was over ∈1.5 billion (Bush 894). In that same year, there was over $20 billion extra spent on hospital costs due to antibiotic resistance related diseases (Bush 894). Additionally, in Europe in 2007 alone there were over 400,000 sicknesses related to antibiotic resistance diseases; and of those 400,000 sicknesses, 25,000 of them resulted in death (Bush 894). Therefore, using these statistics from 2007, researchers can attempt to compute the ramifications of antibiotic resistance if nothing is done to curtail its presence