I am someone who is very susceptible to the common cold. What happens when I have had a terrible cough for two weeks? I am annoyed, want it to go away, and ultimately convince myself that I have a bacterial sinus infection. I then go and get a prescription for a bacterial sinus infection when I am not even 100% sure it is one. Antibiotics were created to help stop bacterial infections. While they have most definitely been successful in a number of areas, we as a society have been misusing them. In fact, we have been prescribed antibiotics when they are not even needed. It is very easy in our culture to get an antibiotic prescribed to us. Since antibiotics only target the bacteria in our body, if we use these drugs for viral infections, like my example with the common cold, it will not help us, but will actually harm us. Misuse of antibiotics alters our normal gut microbiome and can make harmful organisms become resistant to certain drugs. I find this scary because the normal microbiota is supposed to protect us from infection. If organisms in the normal gut microbiota become resistant to antibiotics, we will no longer have such protection. So, my brilliant idea of getting a prescription to make my cold go away did not help but actually harmed me.
Superbugs are bacteria that cannot be killed by using antibiotics and therefore are resistant to antibiotics. These superbugs have the ability to multiply, cause infection in our bodies, and kill us. If we are able to treat these organisms, it will take stronger drugs and lots of doses. Since antibiotics are so readily available, new organisms in our body are constantly gaining resistance to certain drugs. If we lose the ability to use antibiotics, then what was once thought as a minor infection will all the sudden become life threatening. It’s crazy to think that this could actually happen and that it is of major concern in our world today. I also find it interesting that antibiotics, the drugs that were created to help us, are the ones harming us and have the ability to kill us. It is the antibiotics that are causing the emergence of antibiotic resistant organisms.
Animals also use antibiotics and similarly to humans, they have a normal gut microbiome. When animals misuse and overuse these drugs, they too can develop antibiotic resistance. Something very disturbing to think about is how when these animals are used to make meat, they can infect the food we eat due to the resistance in the organisms in their microbiota. Ew! We can infect ourselves from simply eating a hamburger. The term antibiotic free is found on food labels and it is a bit of a confusing term. For example, if a pack of chicken is labeled “antibiotic free” then it means that that particular animal was not given antibiotics. But animals do still have antibiotic resistant organisms, so we have to be careful. According to Medical News Today, antibiotic resistance is public health crisis. What I want to know is how come we are not well aware of this crisis? Since there have been approximately 3 million people die a year from antibiotic resistant infections, it would be wise for the general public to be more aware of this issue.
Carly's Blog 