Antibiotics overuse

1 Over time, scientists have been busy carrying out researches and today there are a lot of antibiotics at the disposal of medical practitioners to use in administering treatment to patients. In as much as antibiotics are medicinal, when used the wrong way they can have a detrimental effect on the victims. At the same time, using them over long periods of time has its own effects as well. Hence, when the body system is subjected to lengthy periods of time of using antibiotics, which essentially constitutes overusing the drugs, the bacteria develop resistance thereby reducing the effectiveness of the antibiotics. It is important to note that penicillin was the first antibiotic to be discovered by a person called Alexander Fleming. 2 However, prolonged use of antibiotics makes the bacteria learn how these drugs work in the body system.

Consequently, the bacteria get adapted to the ways through which the antibiotics work thereby reducing or even killing the effectiveness of the drugs. Statement of the Problem It is clear that antibiotics are of great importance to the health of human beings because they are used to cure bacterial illnesses. However, they bring about a totally different situation when overused and this leads to the statement of the research problem, in this case, which seeks to ask the question, are the dangers of antibiotics overuse justified? People have opinions regarding the resistance that bacteria develop towards the effectiveness of antibiotics. This paper looks to carry out an in-depth analysis of both sides of the research problem stated above. Therefore, the threat of bacteria developing resistance becomes high and that means that curing bacterial illnesses will be a big challenge.

Position B However, arguments against the stated research problem imply that the dangers of antibiotics resistance are exaggerated. From this point of view, it is argued that antibiotics resistance can be fought by inhibiting their evolution. Antibiotics resistance comes about as a result of the evolution of bacteria, which is in turn caused by the mutation of the bacterial proteins. High mutation rates of such bacteria yield the emergence of pathogens that are antimicrobial-resistant. Literature Review According to Abdelrahman and company, abuse of antibiotics is a global health problem that has caused a lot of headache in the medical sectors, a claim that is supported by physicians. Long periods of using antibiotics can lead to the development of resistance by bacteria that affect human beings.

4 This happens because once the bacteria enter the system of a human being they tend to fight back the antibiotics. On many occasions, before an individual uses these drugs for a long time, the bacteria are always defeated. With time, the bacteria adapt to how the antibiotics carry out their business in the body. According to Deo and company, when the good bacteria that are meant to help in the digestion process become antibiotics-resistant then the digestive system is hugely affected. 5 This implies that food cannot be properly digested and this becomes a problem. When the resistant bacteria interfere with the good ones then they quickly multiply in population and outgrow the good bacteria. The resultant dominant bacteria that are resistant then begin producing chemicals that are irritating inside the bowel.

The walls of the bowel begin to corrode and this is what usually causes diarrhea, which is usually short-lived until an individual stops taking the antibiotics drugs. Resources that would have been channeled in other important healthcare operations now become funding for the fight against the resistant bacteria. This justifies the claim that overusing antibiotics has a big threat to the health lives of people, in this case, a financial one. By the time people begin getting into situations where they are considered as having overused antibiotics, it means that they have for a long period of time received prescriptions from the doctors. There are circumstances when these drugs run out of stock for the outpatients as a result of too many prescriptions.

This results in the doctors prescribing antibiotics that are meant for the inpatients only, meaning that they are best used while within the hospital under the watch of a nurse, for example. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge that antibiotics overuse is really a big problem. In White and Kang’s research, it is stipulated that antibiotics play a vital role in many medical procedures and also in healing many bacterial infections. Overusing the antibiotics means that resistance is developed by the bacteria. This is a threat to some procedures like surgery where antibiotics are usually used to kill bacteria that may contaminate the whole process. 10 A threat to the lives of people is a reason enough to justify the claim that antibiotics overuse has significant dangers that must be put into consideration rather than just ignoring them and assuming that there may be a solution that could work in dealing with antibiotics resistance.

Their argument was that when drugs are prescribed properly patients will not find themselves in situations where they have to use antibiotics when there could be another alternative. 12 Personal Opinion From the literature review above, it is clear that there are significant reasons to worry about overusing antibiotics as well as those that calm the situation down by offering solutions. I believe that antibiotics overuse should be given more attention, even in as much as there are several ways of dealing with the resistance developed by bacteria. I tend to support preventive measures like policy formulation in the healthcare industry, which will improve the delivery of services to people. I am aligned with this idea because preventing is less risky than curing.

The nurses have had to improve a whole lot on how they deliver their services15 to the patients because of the nature of illnesses reported as a result of people overusing antibiotics. The various deaths that have occurred around the world have made the nurses become even more careful with their prescription of drugs such that inpatient and outpatient medical seekers are properly advised and given drugs depending on their conditions. In general terms, the nursing practice around the globe has significantly improved especially when handling bacterial infections. This is because of the sensitization of this topic about overusing antibiotics and the impact it has on the health of individuals. Those in school who are aspiring to become nurses are not left out as well because responsibility for patients begins in the classroom.

This has been proven in the past with deaths of people being reported. In conclusion, the evidence available suggests that the problems associated with antibiotics overuse are not an exaggeration but a tough situation that requires all stakeholders in the health sector to do their part. References Abdelrahman, T. , Alsaeed, M. , Karam, R. N. , Gharbi, M. , Farrell, S. , & Holmes, A. H. J. The global threat of antibiotic resistance: what can be done? Health Rep, 1, e2017002. Manning, M. L. , Pfeiffer, J. , Monges, P. , Stein, A. , Gensollen, S. , & Seng, P. Misuse of antibiotics reserved for hospital settings in outpatients: a prospective clinical audit in a university hospital in Southern France. Vangay, P. , Ward, T. , Gerber, J. S. , & Knights, D. , & Wencewicz, T.  Antibiotics: challenges, mechanisms, opportunities.