Has the Consumption of Antibiotics Increased in the Modern Times?
Antibiotics have been an amazing discovery in the history of medicine. It has helped in curing so many kinds of diseases and infections among humans. The discovery of Penicillin was the beginning of a new phase. Penicillin itself has helped in reducing deaths which were caused by infectious diseases. Some of these diseases were pneumonia, rheumatic heart disease which was caused by Streptococcus infection, syphilis, Gonorrhoea infections and so many more.
These days, physicians and doctors prescribe antibiotics to patients suffering from viral infections such as flu or the common cold, normally they are not life-threatening and the individual can recover from it within a time period of two weeks. Most antibiotics do not work in case of viral infections and are effective for bacterial infections. As the doctors provide antibiotics for viral infections, it creates a more bacterial resistance in the body. This situation only causes damage without even providing any alternative benefit.
Apart from the bad bacteria, there are many bacteria in our body that are helpful for many involuntary processes occurring in our body. Bacteria those are present in the intestines and colon help in the digestive processes. If there is too much intake of antibiotics in our body, then it affects the natural growth and development of our fauna causing malnourishment. Therefore, treatment methods can cause many health related especially digestion related problems.
There has been an increased production of antibiotics in the past years, because they are extensively used in farms for the crops as well as the livestock. It is used for preventing diseases as well as promoting the growth. These high amounts of antibiotics get into our food chain through the meat and crops that we consume and also contaminate the drinking water coming from the water that are run off from the crops. These may be a leading cause of obesity epidemic which is a major concern today.
As the bacteria start getting resistant to the antibiotic drug, there is a higher demand for better and more advanced drugs to rule out the older antibiotics. The pharmaceutical companies are deriving great profit out of it and hence, it is like a boon to them. Later, the bacteria will even get resistant to the newer drug, but it will pose a threat to the individual because of the power of the medication. As only the hybrid bacteria get to survive, they will end up forming a chain of bacteria resistant from the latest version of antibiotic used.
Many people die due to bacterial infections because of the evolution of the drug resistant bacteria. MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) is a very common bacteria. Clostridium difficile is also a problem that occurs when the normal and helpful bacteria present in the colon gets removed because of the overuse of the antibiotics. Antibiotics often causing this infection are amoxicillin and ampicillin. The newer generation of bacteria are getting extremely deadly and toxic by becoming resistant to antibiotics like fluoroquinolones which earlier provided the necessary cure to the patient.