Antibiotics · A Life-Saving Drug

Antibiotics are the medicine that helps to fight only bacterial infection. They do not work for fungal and viral infections. Bacteria is a single-cell organism that can be harmful.

The first widely used Antibiotics is penicillin discovered in 1928 by Alexander Flaming. When he was working in his lab he suddenly notices that his cell culture of Staphylococcus is contaminated by molds. He observes that the mold creates an ‘area of inhibition’ which means that Staphylococcus culture can’t grow in that area. It kills the bacteria in that area. The mold was Penicillium notatum. And the active substance which kills bacteria flaming named it Penicillin.

Other scientists work further and so it could be produced as a drug. And in the 1940s it was mass-produced by pharmaceutical industries.

How do antibiotics work?

Antibiotics work a specific part of bacteria cell which human cell don’t have they will stop the bacterial infection. This can be done in two ways by stopping bacteria reproducing or by killing them. Antibiotics do this by inhibiting certain metabolic and chemical processes.

There are two types of antibiotics Broad antibiotics and narrow antibiotics. Broad antibiotics protect from multiple infections. Whereas narrow antibiotics protect from some infection.

Antibiotics used in post-surgery, chemotherapy, and organ transplant. Without antibiotics, routine medical procedures can lead to life-threatening infections.

Antimicrobial resistance

In Alexander flaming Nobel Prize acceptance speech he said “Penicillin is to all intents and purposes non-poisonous so there is no need to worry about giving an overdose and poisoning the patient. There may be a danger, though, in under dosage. It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them, and the same thing has occasionally happened in the body. The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops. Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdoes himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.” He was right. Antibiotics are heavily prescribed by doctors and can sell in shops without a prescription. Some bacteria are resistant to all currently available antibiotics.

For example, Mr. X. has a sore throat. He buys some penicillin and gives himself, not enough to kill the Streptococci but enough to educate them to resist penicillin. He then infects his wife. Mrs. X gets pneumonia and is treated with penicillin. As the streptococci are now resistant to penicillin the treatment fails. Mrs. X dies. Who is primarily responsible for Mrs. X’s death? Why Mr. X whose negligent use of penicillin changed the nature of the microbe.

To help prevent Antibiotic Resistance

Don’t use antibiotics for viruses like colds or flu. Antibiotics don’t work on viruses.
Don’t pressure your doctor to give you an antibiotic.
When you take antibiotics, follow the directions carefully. Finish your medicine even if you feel better. If you stop treatment too soon, some bacteria may survive and re-infect you.
Don’t save antibiotics for later or use someone else’s prescription.

Moral: If you use Antibiotics, use enough.