1. Isibhakhomen Arhewoh
Principles of Public Health
11/18/2015
Antibiotics Resistance Scare
The misuse of antibiotic has led to the increase of antibiotics resistance in individuals.
The public believes that medical professionals are to blame for the overuse of antibiotics but
the agricultural sector should share some of the blame too. In the article by Jen Christensen
“Pediatricians want farmers to use fewer antibiotics” (2015), her objective was to regulate the
amount of antibiotics given to animals because of the after effect of consuming meat by
humans. The after effect can be food poisoning and antibiotic resistant. A bacteria having
antibiotic resistance means that the antibiotic no longer harms the bacteria or no longer reduce
the bacteria load in the body.
Antibiotic Resistance bacteria is a growing interest as population aggressively increases.
There is a need for the increase of production of food, but the availability of farmland is a
concern. Hence, a new approach to agriculture have been made to grow more food on less
land. Most of these methods are ingenious but they occur at the damage to either the
environment or human principle. An example is the substantial use of antibiotics in animals
feeding. According to Grace Communication Foundation, “Today, antibiotics are routinely fed
to livestock, poultry, and fish on industrial farms to promote faster growth and to compensate
for the unsanitary conditions in which they are raised…report by the FDA, approximately 80
percent of all antibiotics used in the United States are fed to farm animals”(2015). Antibiotics

2. are meant to be used if the animals are sick, not because of selfish reasons, such as to increase
the growth of the animals.
Fifty years ago antibiotics were the talk of the Medical world now the new talk is trying
to find better antibiotics. Today there seems to be a continuing battle between the progression
of bacteria and modern medicine. This developed into a severe issue in hospitals as bacterial
resistant infection rose despite the different methods used to treat patient who have these
infectious diseases. The misuse and exorbitant use of antimicrobials can be pushed by illiteracy,
error made by the medical professionals, patients and their families or loved ones. Today
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA is one of the dominant public health
threats, regardless of all the new improvements in medicine. The ability to make new
antibiotics that will target these resistive organisms has been close to none. Increase in
antibiotic resistance can be connected to sociological, ecological, and genetic factors which are
the overuse of antibiotics, unplanned mutation and horizontal gene transfer.
An interesting thing about bacterium is its ability to pass antibiotic resistance to one
another. This very fascinating fact can be a huge problem to the society, thereby creating a
“societal problem”. Humans make up a society, in this society, humans tend to constantly
interact with people, animals and objects while moving from place to place because of different
occupational status, academic institution and leisure. We tend to come into contact with
different types and strains of micro-organisms both good and bad by what we come into
contact with and what we ingest. When food containing antibiotic resistance bacteria are
ingested by humans, they either make you sick or just stay in the body, slowly affecting or
changing the intestinal flora. However, some of resistance bacteria in the human system tend

3. to be passed out (excreted), and may find their way into the environment as waste. Bacteria are
small and some retained their resistance ability. They do survive and can find their way into the
soil and water supply, therefore infecting a whole new set of people in the community or
effecting the different bacteria colony in the soil.
The possibility of being sick can be due to food poison, undergoing surgery,
injuries or simple illnesses. The basic treatment we are given are antibiotics to help us get
better, but because of slow change in the intestinal flora and the bacteria are resistant to
antibiotic, over the counter antibiotics do not work. Antibiotics that will work will be expensive
and will take a longer time to work. Simple illnesses that take a period of 3-5 days take longer
because of long medication days or hospitalization. Due to the chain of events a person might
lose their job, which means a person may not have the means to pay the hospital bills, get food
or even pay rent. This might cause the person to look for other means of getting money that
may cause harm to other people in society. The public still shares a role in this because most
people do not complete their medication because they believe when they feel better they are
alright and may decide to save their medication for the next time they fall ill, not knowing that
doing this may lead to more harm than good. In terms of antibiotics in food, people tend to
want the food with antibiotics because they believed that it is safe, but it still also means that
even the least left bacteria that survive have become bacteria resistant and if that single
antibiotic resistance enters a human body and grow it might change that person intestinal flora.
Antibiotics resistance bacteria can be reduced in the society if the public is made aware
of the dangers of the overuse of antibodies. Jen Christensen said, “In practice, farmers are not
giving these drugs solely to help sick animals. Most are given in low doses as a precaution or are

4. used to help animals grow”. The public believe in this slogan which is “prevention is better than
cure” in most cases it is true. It is better to prevent something from happening than face the
consequences of it when it happens, but when it comes to using antibiotics, preventing an
animal from getting sick will cause more harm than good in the long run. It might actually
prevent it, but killing bacteria means it is killing both the bad ones and the good ones as well.
The remaining bacteria that is left becomes resistance because it survived, thereby opening the
intestinal flora to grow and multiply the bad ones (resistant bacteria). Bacteria are
opportunists, if the good bacteria occupy a person flora bad ones cannot survive or grow. In
addition, the government should put a stricter ban on the FDA regulation. If a stricter ban is put
in place farmers will not be able to go to the feed store and pick up antibiotics without
prescription.
In conclusion, antibiotics need be used carefully by everyone in the society to keep the
public health. The agriculture sector, medical, manufacturers and as well as the community has
to be constantly aware of the implication of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. According to
Dr. Thomas Frieden, "We talk about a pre-antibiotic era and an antibiotic era…If we're not
careful, we'll be in a post-antibiotic era”. This means that if the rate of antibiotic resistance is
not slowed or reversed simple infectious disease that were long forgotten about and were
easily cured will be the leading cause of death.

5. References
Brown, E. (2013, September 16) Drug-resistant superbugs multiplying: CDC report IDs
'urgent threats'. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/16/science/la-sci-sn-cdc-
antibiotic-resistance-20130916
Christensen, J. (2015, November 16). Pediatricians want farmers to use fewer
antibiotics. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/16/health/antibiotic-resistance-
meat/index.html
Grace Communication Foundation. (2015) Antibiotics. Retrieved from
http://www.sustainabletable.org/257/antibiotics