Resistance Reflection

Anastashia Edwards

Resistance Reflection Vaccines and antibiotics have made many infectious diseases a thing of the past; we 've come to expect that public health and modern science can conquer all microbes. But nature is a formidable adversary. (Tom Frieden) Resistance was a documentary made in 2015 that was made as a warning to deter people from overplaying the use of antibiotics. Our excessive use of antibiotics as a precautionary measure has lead to resistance in new strains of bacteria. This resistance in certain strains has made them untreatable and often deadly.

Many individuals believe all bacteria are harmful and pose a risk to our everyday health, but some bacteria play a key role in our survival. Antibiotics are overused by

His worried father took him to the emergency room after various tests, Simon was said to be fine. A few hours later, Simon’s mother was alarmed when she touched Simon’s ice cold face. She called and Simon’s doctor and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Upon arrival, Simon was taken to the ICU and given numerous antibiotics none of which helped. Later, he was placed on ECMO. The next day, Simon was pronounced dead after being taken off ECMO. Two months later, it was discovered Simon had developed MRSA Staph infection from a community strain.

The documentary gives the use of antibiotics in hog feed as one example of the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture. In the U.S. hog farmers place small amounts of antibiotics into the animals feed every day. These precautions have given rise to new antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, harming both livestock and humans. The FDA has expressed concern but the government has yet to outlaw the use of antibiotics in livestock feed. Many farmers say the use of antibiotics is now an economic necessity. The country of Denmark has since proved

Denmark held a public debate on whether or the use of antibiotic growth promoters posed a to the public’s health. Soon, the industry had decided that profit could still be made without growth promoters in animal feed. This lead to a voluntary ban in 1992 and was finalized by the government in 1995 for a complete banning. Today, Denmark uses fifty percent less antimicrobial agents and as a result, now produce fifty percent more. This ban has also lead to a dramatic drop in resistance.

Many pharmaceutical companies focus on producing the newest and best miracle antibiotic. On average, a pharma company spends ten years and one billion dollars on developing a drug. Instead of being focused on producing miracle drugs and making the top dollar. Pharmaceutical companies need to make the production of Insulin or Statten their main focus, something that people will use for a lifetime. Developers should be making it a priority to develop new drugs that may not be used all the time. Instead, they will be used sparingly and in times absolute need to reduce the risk of resistance to