The Rise of the Super Bugs

Though this may seem a title out of a science fiction movie this may be emerging closer than was once thought. Many people are becoming concerned about the emergence of disease resistant viruses, also termed super bugs, and their possible effects on our society. Many of these fears revolve around the widespread overuse of antibiotics. One of the reasons world health experts believe antibiotic-resistant bugs are increasing is because of the misuse of antibiotics by doctors and patients.” Read More 

The systematic overuse of these antibiotics that are supposed to protect us has lead to certain strains of viruses mutating. While 99% of a virus is killed the 1% still lives with some levels of immunity. Now these immune strains are growing and are more present."Scientists believe that over-prescription of antibiotics for humans and the massive and unregulated overuse of these drugs on livestock by farmers in many countries is creating a microbiological timebomb that is primed to overwhelm our defences.” Read More


The FDA is strongly urging people to only take the medication that they need and to return the unused pills to police stations or pharmacies for disposal as opposed to flushing unwanted pills down the drain.  This is promoted because prescription medication has made it’s way now into of all places our water. In a survey begun in 1999, the agency surveyed 139 streams around the country and found that 80 percent of samples contained residues of drugs like painkillers, hormones,blood pressure medicines or antibiotics. The agency said the findings suggested that the compounds were more prevalent and more persistent than had been thought.” Read More  

Now with the presence of antibiotics showing up in so many places it’s hard to say how to begin to regulate prescription drugs to protect ourselves from mutating bacteria. It would seem the first step it to try to contain the spread of antibiotics and continued research into the possible outcomes of these bacteria.

Comments

  1. Great Post. I like the Introduction. Very grabbing!
    Sarah.

    ReplyDelete

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