Blog #5

Superbugs are bacterial strains that have become resistant to antibiotics, making them harder to eliminate when treating an infection. Superbugs are causing problems with disease treatment because treatments that were once used to eliminate bacteria and reduce infections are now ineffective. Bacterial populations have always been able to change overtime to ensure survival under antibiotics, however, humans are speeding up the process like never before. Before antibiotics, people would die from infections that we now consider easily treatable. Because of patient misuse of antibiotics prescribed them, we are shaving off the amount of time that we can continue to use antibiotics successfully.

According to this article, some of the many factors contributing to the rapid spread of antibiotic resistant superbugs include misuse of antibiotics, poor infection control practices, living in unsanitary conditions, and mishandling food. The FDA has released several statements regarding the proper use of antibiotics. Some of their main recommendations include taking antibiotics as prescribed, not skipping doses, and not sharing antibiotics with others. Stopping treatment early can allow surviving bacteria to become resistant to the antibiotics that they were already exposed to. Sharing antibiotics with someone else may seem like a financially smart idea, but in the end, they can actually worsen a patient’s condition because they may not target the same bacteria. Not only are we training bacteria to become resistant through unnecessary exposure to our antibiotics, many countries are also feeding their cattle antibiotics for growing purposes. The antibiotics are oftentimes detected in the feces of the cattle, thus, proving bacterial exposure to our antibiotics.

The overexposure of antibiotics to bacteria is allowing the rapid spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and it is ultimately dooming future generations from using antibiotics. In this article, the CDC explains that there are more than 35,000 deaths resulting from antibiotic resistant infections. Not only are antibiotic-resistant infections hard to treat, they are also hard to contain and can be easily spread, thus increasing resistance within the species. In the CDC’s 2019 AR Threats Report, Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae was considered an urgent threat. The bacteria that are part of this group are often called the Nightmare bacteria because some of them are resistant to almost all antibiotics. This large family of deadly bacteria can cause pneumonia, infections in the blood stream, urinary tract infections, and even meningitis. As a growing number of superbugs appear, it is important to keep in mind the recommendations of the FDA and CDC. By doing this, not only can we slow down the process of becoming antibiotic resistant, we can also slow down the spread of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We need to speak out about the use of antimicrobials in farm animal production, and we need to encourage proper use of antibiotics by patients.