The Antibiotic Resistant Crisis
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Antibiotic
resistance is , in itself, not surprising. Nor is it new.
It is, however, newly worrying because it is accumulating and accelerating,
while the world's tools for combating it decrease in power and number.
- Joshua Lederberg, Nobel Prize
winner
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The Beginning of Antibiotics
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Alexander
Flemingās discovery of penicillin in 1928, and subsequent use in
1942, revolutionized modern health by providing a rapid cure to
previously fatal infections.
This attribute of penicillin and antibiotics as a whole has
earned them the title of miracle drugs.
Paradoxically, it is the overuse and misuse of these miracle
drugs that have led to the current crisis of antibiotic resistance.
Penicillin, for example, was almost 100% effective against
Staphylococcus in 1952 and was less than 10% effective in
all clinical cases by 1982.
Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) received the Noble Prize in 1945
for the discovery of penicillin's effects on bacterial growth.
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Antibiotics
are products produced by microorganisms to inhibit the growth of
competing bacteria. In
the 20th century, scientists have discovered ways to
make synthetic antibiotics, thus making the current antibiotic field
an array of natural and synthetic antibiotics. The function of antibiotics is to inhibit the growth of specific
bacteria. Antimicrobials
accomplish this goal in several ways including inhibition of bacterial
cell wall or cell membrane synthesis, transcription, translation,
and metabolism.
The petri dish Fleming
observed after returning to his laboratory. The penicillin
mold (top) prevented Staphyloccus aureus bacteria (bottom)
from growing.
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