The Rise of the Superbugs

A Superbug is a bacterium that can live in the human body and has the efficacy to withstand solely forms of antibiotic medication. Superbugs be becoming increasely significant in modern medicine as they ar becoming more(prenominal) and more foul to antibiotics. Antibiotics were disc overed in 1928 by Alexander Fleming (Walsh and McManus, 2000). This takingsed in a huge movement out front in medical history and even greatened human life expectancy. Since wherefore antibiotics make water been widely used and abused, people began to treat everything with this miracle medicine.If antibiotics are continually used as bacterium grows exp atomic consequence 53ntially more resistant to them thusly in conclusion confederation allow for fall back into an era without the quick use of antibiotics. Fortunately the superbug is not currently immune to all antibiotics as some forms of antibiotics can still treat the bacterium. In old age to muster up the superbug will become increasingly hazardous to mainstream fiat as it grows warmer than scientists can build medication for. Bacteria are the main source for all diseases and deaths worldwide and have been on hide out for billions of years, much longer than humans.Bacteria were starting time sight by a Dutchman named Anton van Leeuwenhoek in the 1660s hardly it wasnt until the 1850s that bacteria was regarded as the main cause of disease. Because bacteria have been around for so long it has evolved to suit to most environments to withstand any other organisms. In the 1930s Alexander Fleming, Ernst Chain and Howard Florey discovered an antibody which could destroy most bacteria and assist to fight infectious diseases. Many experiments were completed to understand the in force(p) impact antibiotics had on humans and how much was use uped to rid individual of disease.Drug companies began to mass produce Antibiotics as a means of exercise set infections and diseases, but solo a few years later s cientists began to watch the bacterias resistance to antibiotics. Like most environments, bacteria were equal to adapt to live comfortably with the Antibiotics. Darwins theory of evolution states that through with(predicate) natural selection the fittest will survive, this is the case for bacteria living with antibiotics. (Wiley, 2004) The initiation of an antibiotic alters the environment and acts as a selective pressure.They had highly-developed a resistant by numerous ways, the most common be horizontal gene transmission. This is the campaigning of genetic material between bacterial cells and can be done by three contrary processes. The first being Conjugation, which is the transmission of resistant genes through plasmids. Plasmids are small strands at heart a call which are able to replicate the DNA of a chromosome and carry information around the cell and to other cells. It allows the cell the ability to adapt to different environments.The bacterium achieves antibiotic resistance by betoken contact with another bacterium where the plasmid moves into the other cell through a protein tube called a Pilus. The second is Transformation, a cell will pick up DNA from their environment, usually from other dead cells and hence incorporate it into its sustain genetic makeup. The third is called Transduction. This is where phages, which are small viruses, walk of life through bacteria injecting themselves inside. When a phage moves to the next bacterium it carries a small amount of the genetic code from the previous cell, allowing the DNA to pass between cells. Wiley, 2004) (Bailey, 2013). These bacteria then split and multiply, creating a bacterium that is resistant to most antibiotics and these are known as superbugs. Superbugs are growing at an exponential rate, with more antibiotics used, bacteria has the perfect environment to create an nonsuch resistant bacterium. For umteen years now scientists have known of this increasing issue, attempting to create new forms of antibiotics while the bacteria will always adapt and grow resistant to.To quote Alexander Fleming The greatest possibility of slimy in self-medication is the use of too small doses so that instead of modification up infection the microbes are educated to resist penicillin and a host of penicillin-fast organisms is bred out which can be passed to other individuals and from them to others until they r all(prenominal) someone who gets a septicemia or pneumonia which penicillin cannot save. (Walsh and McManus, 2000). The superbug poses a huge threat to golf-club in many ways and it raises many issues. How should the patient be handled?How many different types of antibiotics are too much for a person to defend on? How can people living in poverty prevent the blossom out of bacteria? The rise of the superbug produces numerous questions surrounding the care of patients and the fast outspread of the resistant bacteria. The way scientists and doctors treat and care for their patients should be acquit priority, but when the patient is either living in poverty or in an area with limited resources it becomes herculean. In many poor cultures the superbug is growing much swift because they dont necessarily have the understanding to prevent the spread of bacteria.In places like India and Pakistan antibiotics can be bought readily at pharmacies without prescriptions. Because many people think antibiotics can repossess anything they use them in stamp downly, on that pointfore creating an environment for the bacteria to grow resistant. This is a major issue in Southern Asia as the rise of superbugs is much faster here than other countries. Reasons for this include the ease of access to antibiotics, the method of isolation for patients with the superbug and the contamination of water by antibiotics.Many drug companies set up their waste into rivers nearby, creating the perfect environment for bacteria. Isolation of patients is significant i n arrogant the outbreak of the superbug but in many Southern Asian countries isolation is not very well managed. Limited resources mean there is limited rooms and limited money and as a result many hospitals provide suitable grounds for the superbug. In many occidental countries isolation can also be a problem but in a different way. Because some bacteria can spread so easily, isolation becomes the solution. While they are dying from that disease they are probably going to infect others. So on a human beings health point of view its go off not treating them and sending them off to die alone (4 Corners, 2012).Economically many drug companies arent developing new ways to defeat the superbug because its not as profitable as manufacturing drugs that people will need for their entire lives. As a result there are only a small number of companies attempting to defeat the superbug. Another area for associate is the current rate of antibiotics going into animal feed. In 1998, in the jo in States, 80 million prescriptions of antibiotics for human use were filled. This equals 12,500 haemorrhoid in one year. Animal and agricultural uses of antibiotics are added to human use. Agricultural practices account for over 60% of antibiotic usage in the U. S. , so this adds an additional 18,000 tons per year to the antibiotic burden in the environment (Kenneth Todar, 2012). Politically this number is far too monstrous to sustain as it is expensive and eventually wont help the animals, rather it will just create more superbugs.The most important question is what is being done to prevent the rise of superbugs. Scientists develop numerous ways to do this, most failing. plainly modernly there have been a few breakthroughs in price of stopping the superbugs from killing humans. Firstly, more than ? of all antibiotics used are from soil. Antibiotics are also found hundreds of metres underground in caves, where the living conditions are harsh. In order for the bacteria to survi ve they must either defend their own resources very well or attack other bacteria, by producing bacteria killing chemicals, to get their resources.Collecting these chemicals could produce a new antibody that is exceedingly powerful because it has survived in such harsh environments. Secondly, just as bacteria have been on earth for billions of years, so have bacteriophages. A bacteriophage is a virus for bacteria it injects itself into the bacterium and produces many replicas of itself inside. It will keep replicating until the bacteria splits or bursts. As there are many different types of bacteria there are also any different bacteriophages, which makes it difficult to find the right phage for the bacteria.Using bacteriophages to kill bacteria is better than antibiotics because they have the ability to adapt to their environment. Lastly bacteria cant kill on its own, it must have a large number of bacteria to create any damage to a person. It was discovered quite recently that ba cteria have the ability to communicate with each other, they release molecules that grow in proportion to the number of bacteria so when that number gets high enough the receptors on the bacteria communicate and change their behaviour at the same time (SBS Documentary, 2013).This is known as quorum sensing. organism able to stop the communication between bacteria would prevent the bacteria from harming people, they would be inactive. Many scientists have produced other methods to prevent the rise of the superbug but unfortunately most bacteria have evolved and become resistant. before long there are very little bacteria that have richly evolved to be resistant to all antibiotics but in the years to come antibiotics could become ineffective.In the past antibiotics were overused, they were used to fight diseases that could not be cured with antibiotics which therefore created antibiotic resistant bacteria. Only in recent times have scientists really begun to address this issue as mo re and more people are developing the superbug with no appropriate cure yet. The rise of the superbug is becoming increasingly dangerous to society and many ethical, economical and health issues must be answered.