Antibiotical resistance: A burden to the health industry
What happens when something that was once a gift to the healthcare system is now becoming less effectful every day? This question is becoming ever more pertinent as we face an escalating health crisis of antibiotical resistance. This crisis, however, is not due to environmental factors or the evolution of human systems but is because of our very own attitude and lack of seriousness towards today's medication and trusted doctors.
Ranging from bacteria that cause minor inconveniences to bacteria that are capable of causing deadly epidemics, antibiotics have the ability to thwart all bacterial infections by disrupting protein synthesis in bacterial cells while leaving human cells unscathed. This is because antibiotics specifically affect prokaryotic cells by interfering with their special structures or functions. Many antibiotics, for instance, prevent the production of new cell walls. Others aim to block protein synthesis in bacteria without harming eukaryotic cells by targeting bacterial ribosomes, which are physically different from eukaryotic ribosomes.
Over the years, diseases that were deadly threats to humanity have become easily treatable with the help of antibiotics, because of which antibiotics have become an integral part of medicine. However, they are becoming less effective every day, and we are at risk of losing them. When prescribed antibiotics for any reason, there is a span of specific days it needs to be consumed, which is the duration the antibiotics can completely wipe out the bacteria present. However, as many patients begin to feel better and less sick, they stop consumption of antibiotics. Most bacterial cells die, but the remaining have now built antibiotical resistance because of the small amount of antibiotics that have acted on it. When some bacterial cells die, they leave their DNA to be picked up by other bacteria, or others use a method called conjugation, which involves them sharing their genes. With time, the resistant genes proliferate, creating entire strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This means that whenever a sickness is caused by the bacteria and the same antibiotic is taken to diminish the duration of the bacteria, it will be ineffective as the bacteria is now resistant to it.
Today, bacteria that are resistant to many antibiotics are common, and there are some strains present that are resistant to all current drugs. The creator of the first antibiotic, Penicillin, Alexander Fleming, mentioned in one of his speeches that bacterial resistance has the potential to ruin the miracle of antibiotics, which has now become a reality. Using antibiotics when not necessarily required can increase the bacteria’s exposure to the antibiotic and contribute to an opportunity for them to develop resistance. Drug-resistant bacteria can enter our bodies through the food chain from the animals we eat due to antibiotics being given to animals by farmers, or they can be created in our bodies, or they can be transferred genetically.
In this debilitating condition of bacterial infection treatment, curbing the use of unnecessary antibiotics, creating new antibiotics, creating vaccines to prevent bacterial diseases, and finding new ways to combat bacterial infections can help us sustain and counteract resistance in the long term.
