Improper Antibiotic Use Of Penicillin example essay topic

Penicillin, substance named this because the fungal contaminant was identified as Penicillium no tatum. The antibacterial effect of penicillin was first discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1929. With its interesting mode of action, Penicillin prevents the cross-linking of small peptide chain in peptidoglycan, the main wall polymer of bacteria. This simple antibiotic has surely made its mark and continues to do so all around the world. Penicillin has helped, enriched and saved the lives of many; however, its effectiveness may have ran its course. Penicillin, any one of a group of antibiotics derived from the fungus Penicillium or created by using partially artificial processes.

The action of natural penicillin was first observed in 1928 by British bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming, but another ten years passed before penicillin was concentrated and studied by British biochemist Ernst Chain, British pathologist Sir Howard Florey, and other scientists. Penicillin acts both by killing bacteria and by inhibiting their growth. It does not kill organisms in the resting stage but only those growing and reproducing. Penicillin is effective against a wide range of disease-bearing microorganisms, including pneumococci, streptococci, gonococci, meningococci, the clostridium that cause tetanus, and the syphilis spirochete. The drug has been successfully used to treat such deadly diseases as endocarditis, septicemia, gas gangrene, gonorrhea, and scarlet fever. Toxic symptoms produced by penicillin are limited largely to allergic reactions that can be anticipated by the use of scratch tests before administration of the drug.

In 1980 a group of physicians announced that they had successfully desensitized several penicillin-allergic patients with a procedure that took only three hours; tests of the method on a wider scale were instituted. Penicillin kills bacteria by interfering with the ability to synthesize cell wall. It works fast, as soon as the problem is identified penicillin goes to work. One by one the bacteria die because they cannot complete the process of division that produces two new "daughter" bacteria from a single "parent" bacterium. The new cell wall that needs to be made to separate the "daughters" is never formed. Although, with penicillins easy way of dealing with things, many side effects and bad habits have come from the antibiotic.

Though some people clearly need to be treated with penicillin, many experts are concerned about the inappropriate use of these powerful drugs. Improper antibiotic use of penicillin selects for populations of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Some bacteria avoid the effect of penicillin by the production of penicillin ase, an enzyme that destroys penicillin. Another improper concern is the use of penicillin in livestock, where the drugs are used in well animals to prevent disease, and the animals are later slaughtered for food. Many people have come to take antibiotics for granted. Penicillin falls into this category.

A person suffers from a bacterial infection, a penicillin pill quickly controls it. But infections, as well as resistance do occur, and can and do still kill. Patients often stop taking penicillin too soon, because symptoms improve. However, this merely encourages resistant microbes to proliferate. The infection returns a few weeks later, and this time a different drug must be used to treat it. Antibiotic Resistance is very complex.

It results from gene action. Bacteria acquires genes conferring resistance in any of three ways: spontaneous DNA mutation, microbial sex called transformation, and most frightening, however, is resistance acquired from a small circle of DNA called a plasmid. Now vacomycin resistance has turned up in another common hospital bug, enterococcus. It is only a matter of time, since bacteria swap resistance genes like teenagers swap T-shirts, many microbiologists believe, until vacomycin-resistant staph infections appear.

Although, this was not the first bug to battle Penicillin. The first bug was Staphylococcus aureus. This bacterium is often a harmless passenger in the human body, but it can cause illness, such as pneumonia or toxic shock syndrome, when it overgrows or produces toxin. Along with the resistance comes a Vicious Cycle.

Though bacterial antibiotic resistance is a natural phenomenon, societal factors also contribute to the problem. These factors include increased infection transmission, coupled with inappropriate antibiotic use. While awaiting the net "wonder drug", society must appreciate, and use correctly, the ones that we already have. Some experts think that restrictions should be placed on curtain antibiotics, including penicillin. Dr. Joe Cranston on antibiotic restriction, "we have known since way back in the antibiotic era that these drugs have been used inappropriately in surgical prophylaxis (preventing infections in surgical patients). But there is more success (in limiting antibiotic use) in hospital settings, where guidelines are established, than in the more typical outpatient settings".

Along with Cranston, many other exerts also believe in this idea of restriction. A morphogenetic effect is seen through antibiotics. The morphogenetic effect of penicillin can be demonstrated by growing either Gram-positive or Gram-negative bacteria in the presence of sub-lethal concentrations of penicillin. By affecting the cross-linking of the bacterial cell wall, penicillin causes bacterium to grow as larger cells with less frequent cell divisions. An antibiotic having the morphogenetic effect can be good or bad at different times. Dealing with either Gram-positive and Gram-negative can bring complications.

Along with a morphogenetic effect, many more effects are seen through penicillin. Like all antibiotics, penicillin has its certain doses for certain people and their illnesses. Children have to take intravenously for severe infections 4 to 6 doses. It can also be taken orally by children, 2 doses a day. Penicillin can also treat Renal failure, but dose has to be substantially dropped by 25 to 50%. Nursing mothers can be given penicillin.

Concentrations in breast milk are low, but the risk of an alteration of the child's intestinal flora or of a hyper sensitization cannot be excluded. Pregnant women can take it as well. It cannot be taken for liver insufficiency. Along with penicillins aloud dose, its cautions and no dose allowing for some patients might just be even out with each other. In penicillins journey through society and history, its effectiveness is no longer estimated, although is still highly questioned. With its terrific historical story and come about, penicillin was a new dawn.

With its infections and improper use, however, some doctors and patients see it as a typical medical flop. Penicillins uses and contributions have surely helped this complex world like no other. Along with other all antibiotics its questionable causes and effects have also stunned the world. With this modern marvels healing and down falls, the medical world and present day intellectuals around us all will continue to make advances even when something may have, ran its course.