Superbugs are strains of parasites, viruses, fungi, and bacteria that are resistant to antibiotic drugs and other medications that are used in treating the infections. Common examples of superbugs include resistant bacteria causing pneumonia, skin infections, and urinary tract infections. Antimicrobial resistance is a natural process that can be slowed down. However, it cannot be stopped. With time, the typical parasites, fungi, bacteria, and viruses get used to the drugs created to kill them, and they adopt in a manner that they can survive the drugs. When drugs become resistant, standard treatment methods and drugs become ineffective or less effective ( Wright, 2000) .
Antibiotics are drugs used to save lives. They are used in the treatment in a wide array of infections, including life-threatening sepsis and mild urinary tract infections. However, superbugs have risen, and this rise is partly attributed to the overuse of antibiotics. Antibiotics are also administered to animals to prevent or kill infections. Most recently, studies have revealed that antibiotics are being used in animal feeds. It is reported that in the US, 80% of the sold antibiotics are for animal agriculture. Farmers are using high levels of antibiotics in animals to prevent infections and to boost their growth rate for meat production.
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Super Bugs Threat to Humans
A recent CDC report, antibiotic-resistant fungi, and bacteria are responsible for over 2.8 million infections in America and 35,000 mortalities every year. These numbers get exaggerated when Clostridioides difficile is considered, with 3 million infections annually and 48,000 deaths. Clostridioides difficile , abbreviated as C. diff, is a bacterium that is not ordinarily resistant to antibiotics, but it is related to the use of medication. C.diff is one of the significant superbugs listed by the CDC as dangerous to human lives. Other superbugs listed by CDC include the fungus Candida Auris , drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), and carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter . Superbugs are, therefore, a direct life threat to humans, with a potential loss of many lives every year.
Lessons from the process of natural selection from the antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Resistance to antibiotic drugs is a natural process, naturally evolving through natural selection via random mutation. Antibiotic resistance could also be engineered by applying an evolutionary stress on a population. The action by the antibiotic is a response by exerting environmental pressure; the bacteria that have a mutation permits them to survive and live to reproduce. The mutant bacteria then pass on these traits to the next generation that then develops maximum resistance (Ndieyira et al., 2008).
Researchers have developed a great interest in the process of the natural section from antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Studies have revealed that antibiotic usage patterns impact on the development of resistant organisms. Over-use of antibiotics, such as third and second-generation cephalosporins, quickens the development of resistance to methicillin. Additional factors promoting resistance to antibiotics include unnecessary prescriptions, wrong diagnosis, using antibiotics for animals feed as growth additives.
Change in use of Antibiotics
As superbugs continue to be a threat to humans, the policymakers are already pushing for the more robust and careful use of antibiotics by the general public. Researchers are also doing their part to come up with treatments that could effectively fight against resistant bacteria ( Ferber, 2000) . More studies are now suggesting that the ‘shorter the better’ in regards to the treatment of the common infections. However, there is a need for evidence of highly complicated conditions.
Not all treatments require antibiotics treatment. This means that there is a need to have aa better way and methods of determining which infections require antibiotics treatment and which ones do not. It is also essential to have better approaches to deciding when to start antibiotic treatment and when to stop. There is also a need to have a new understanding of how to treat the infections without necessarily using antibiotics.
References
Ferber, D. (2000). Superbugs on the Hoof?. Science , 288 (5467), 792-794.
Ndieyira, J. W., Watari, M., Barrera, A. D., Zhou, D., Vögtli, M., Batchelor, M., ... & Rayment, T. (2008). Nanomechanical detection of antibiotic–mucopeptide binding in a model for superbug drug resistance. Nature nanotechnology , 3 (11), 691.
Wright, G. D. (2000). Resisting resistance: new chemical strategies for battling superbugs. Chemistry & Biology , 7 (6), R127-R132.
