Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria

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Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria

For about 50 years, antibiotics have been the answer to many bacterial infections. Antibiotics
are chemical substances that are secreted by living things. Doctors prescribed these medicines to
cure many diseases. During World War II, it treated one of the biggest killers during wartime -
infected wounds. It was the beginning of the antibiotic era. But just when antibiotics were being
mass produced, bacteria started to evolve and became resistant to these medicines.

Antibiotic resistance can be the result of different things. One cause of resistance could be drug
abuse. There are people who believe that when they get sick, antibiotics are the answer. The
more times you use a drug, the more it will decrease the effect it has on you. That is because the
bacteria has found a way to avoid the effects of that antibiotic. Another cause of resistance is the
improper use of drugs. When patients feel that the symptoms of their disease have improved,
they often stop taking the drug. Just because the symptoms have disappeared it does not mean the
disease has gone away. Prescribed drugs should be taken until all the medicine is gone so the
disease is completely finished. If it is not, then this will just give the bacteria some time to find a
way to avoid the effects of the drug.

One antibiotic that will always have a long lasting effect in history is penicillin. This was the
first antibiotic ever to be discovered. Alexander Fleming was the person resp...

Submitted by: digitalessays
Date Submitted: 10-16-06 9:27am
Category: Social Issues
Words: 800
Pages: 3.2