Hello World Blog Post 1
Why we shouldn’t use antibiotics
The Resistance of Antibiotics
Antibiotics: The Race Against Time
Many times throughout the course of history, society has been able to recognize a global epidemic, but only after it was already too late. AZT and DDT are both prime examples of that. In both cases, humans were taking or using a substance that they thought had no negative effects, but ultimately did in the end. Well, we are on the cusp of similar problem in the near future, only this time its regarding antibiotics.
Humans use antibiotics all over the world for many different purposes such as pain reduction, bacteria treatment, and agricultural production. Ever since Penicillin was discovered in 1928, we have been using antibiotics at an increasing rate. We have always been enthralled and fascinated by what we could do with antibiotics. We try to find new uses for it everyday. But has anyone ever questioned if we should be using and deriving antibiotics? Better yet, what are the long-term effects of antibiotics?
Well it turns out that antibiotics themselves don’t have very many negative effects, but the absence of them overall is a devastating blow to human health and healthcare. The reason why this is a problem is because no new class of antibiotics has been discovered since 1987. Because of this, there is a scientifically supported notion that humans have overused the antibiotics we do have and bacteria have become resistant to our current medicine.
Imagine a world where we don’t have sufficient medicine to treat basic infections. It’s a very real possibility, and the fact that it could happen soon is what interests me most. I’d be very interested to see some research on how many classes of antibiotics specifically treat infections, population statistics on resistance and correlating factors such as gender and ethnicity, future predictions of potential discoveries, and proven examples of the human body resisting treatment.
I want to pursue this topic of healthcare because my mother is a doctor and I thought I knew all there was to know about antibiotics. You take them every time you get sick, and then you’ll feel better a few days later. So I’ve been following that strategy for years. My travels have allowed me to buy antibiotics over-the-counter in many foreign countries, so that’s how I’ve been able to maintain a supply of a few different ones. It frightens me that all this time I could’ve actually been hurting myself more than helping myself.
My goal is to research the validity of the idea of bacteria resisting. I know for a fact that even until this day, I still use antibiotics every time I get sick, and I don’t feel any more resistant now than years ago. I want to look into how frequently one would have to use antibiotics to become resistance. How is resistance defined? Is it possible that resistance can become genetic? Is the rate of resistance different between genders? Are we even sure that we are running out of antibiotics? I would like to analyze statistics and figures that represent the number of resistant people, the probability of discovering new classes of the drug, or the amount of time we have remaining before antibiotics are gone forever.
The Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization are in the process of in-depth studies and testing on antibiotics resistance. Both provide excellent sources of data on cells, the human body, and the human population. It will be interesting to see what other sources provide critical data, statistics, and other pertinent information. It’s important to continue the dialogue on this topic, both written and verbally, because we don’t want to be unprepared for a future without antibiotics. We don’t want our kids and grandkids to grow up with no useful sources of important medicine. We need to make a plan now for what we will do in a world where antibiotics are no longer a possibility.
