Antibiotics

By Joseph Preziosi Jr., DMD

Since their introduction in the 1930’s antibiotics have raised hopes that all bacterial infections could be cured by simply taking antibiotics for a week or two. However in the last three decades, resistant strains of bacteria have been increasing dramatically and the development of new classes of antibiotics has been abandoned by the pharmaceutical industry.

The underlying reasons for this calamity will be explored in this article. To achieve an informed prospective of the current problem it is key to know that from 1930 to 1960 ten different classes of antibiotics were developed all with multiple derivations so that 40 to 50 different individual antibiotics were developed.

Antibiotics

During the 1970s. 1980s and 1990s no new classes of antibiotics were developed and since 2000 only a few new antibiotics have reached the market place and are available to doctors to treat patients. Concomitant with this dearth of new antibiotics being developed the AIDS epidemic was causing new resistant strains of bacteria to increase at an accelerated rate as never before. Also, patients requesting antibiotics from their health providers for whatever they perceived as needing antibiotics for exasperated the problem of resistant strains even further.

In the golden years of antibiotics, 1930 through the 1960s, the was an exuberance of confidence that any resistant strain could be overcome simple by the development of a new class of antibiotic or a new derivative of an existing class of antibiotics. This irrationalism caused the pharmaceutical industry to divert it development efforts and resources away from antibiotics and into other types of medications. Thus leading to the total lack of any new antibiotics being developed from 1970 to 2000, which allowed the bacteria to catch up with the existing antibiotics and develop resistance to them.

This situation now raises the question as to whether the few new antibiotics that are now being developed once again are too little to late since the rates of bacterial resistance to antibiotics has emerged as a serious threat to public health. In 1992 more than 13,000 deaths in health care setting were attributed to bacterial resistant infections and in 2004 this number may have reached
90,000.

Reports from 2003 suggest that 5 to 10 percent of all patients admitted to a hospital in the United States developed at least one resistant infection that did not enter the hospital with. The more ominous statistic and the one that illustrates the greatest threat to public health is the rapidly increasing antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria that are in the community at large. Recent data show that up to 27,000 residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities have antibiotic resistant infections and an inestimable number of ambulatory outpatients are developing antibiotic resistant infections.

Immunodeficient patients, such as AIDS patients and organ transplant patients, have added to the number of antibiotic resistant bacteria because their immune systems have trouble eliminating infections that are weakened significantly by antibiotics. Thus allowing the surviving antibiotic resistant bacteria to multiply and transform the naturally occurring stain of the bacteria to be an antibiotic resistant strain. Couple this with the ever-growing demand from the general public for antibiotics every time they get a cold of cough and the number of antibiotic resistant bacteria is starting to explode exponentially and causing a significant health risk to everyone’s health.

The best way to avoid disaster is to follow your doctor’s instructions fully when they prescribe an antibiotic for you and not to insist on getting an antibiotic when your doctor tells you that an antibiotic is not indicated for your condition. Remember that antibiotics are not effective against viral infections, such as colds or flues, and someday you or a loved one may need an antibiotic to save your life. So, think twice about not following your doctor’s advice.

About the Author:

Joseph Preziosi Jr., DMD
New Jersey Cosmetic Dentist
phone: (908) 654-7100
fax: (908) 654-8764
email: Drpreziosi@aol.com
url: http://www.preziosidentistry.com/