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Reducing the Use of Antibiotics

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Submitted By melissa0021
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Biology Debate Paper
BIO-L02
Proposition: Reducing the Use of Antibiotics Antibiotics are created using natural substances which bacteria secrete to kill other bacteria when forced to compete for limited nutrients. The first antibiotic, Penicillin, was discovered in the 1928 by Alexander Fleming and began being mass produced by the 1940’s. Within the same decade, resistant strains of bacteria began to appear. (1) Since then, 18 dangerous drug-resistant superbugs have been discovered (according to the CDC). A bacterium is referred to as a ‘superbug’ if it carries several resistant genes within its DNA. (2) Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics primarily through two ways: by mutation or by horizontal gene transfer, in which bacteria share resistant genes with other bacteria essentially swapping out portions of their DNA for mutated sections. Antibiotics kill bacteria by binding to the cells protein so that the protein cannot function properly, hindering the bacteria from growing and reproducing. If the bacteria contains mutated portions of DNA, the antibiotic cannot bind to the altered protein and the bacteria won’t be affected. Due to natural selection, the bacteria that survived, the mutated bacteria, will be left to grow and reproduce and all that will remain will be the antibiotic resistant bacteria. (1)

There continues to be an increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria due to a variety of reasons, mainly the over-prescription of antibiotics, the misuse of antibiotics (such as not taking them for the full course), and the use of antibiotics in livestock. (3) Many doctors write prescriptions for antibiotics unnecessarily simply because determining whether an infection is bacterial or viral is both timely and costly; it is more time/cost effective to simply write a prescription for an antibiotic and see if the infection clears up.

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