When the Antibiotics Quit Working Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

When the Antibiotics Quit Working - Assignment Example An antibiotic is a medication that is used to cure pathologic conditions of the body that result mainly due to bacterial infections. This group of drugs has the capability of restricting the growth of bacteria by many mechanisms and they are particularly very useful because these drugs possess the specificity of mainly attacking the bacteria. This property makes them very useful because this allows them to specifically target the microorganisms and not the host cells. Antibiotics are drugs which are prescribed by the doctors for the treatment of severe infections which are caused by bacteria. These drugs are not useful against viral infections because they are not effective in that case. The use of antibiotics has greatly increased over the years. With this rise in the prescription of these medications, there has also been a rise in their ineffectiveness. This incompetence of the drugs results due to the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The reason behind this is that when the bacteria come under attack by these drugs, they have the capability to undergo certain changes via many mechanisms which make them resistant to that particular drug. After the development of one strain of resistant bacteria, there is a quick spread and if the same bacterium infects another person, it will still be resistant to the antibiotics. This can be very harmful and it is via this mechanism that the antibiotic resistant tuberculosis has resulted. Hospitals serve as pools for the generation of these resistant strains. Also the immediate prescription of antibiotics without an initial treatment with alternative medications can be counted as a reason for leading towards this prob lem. Antibiotic overuse with animals also results in resistant bacterial strains within animals and when these are consumed by humans, they also result in diseases by bacteria which do not respond to certain