Antibiotics are organisms or microbial produced through the chemical substances. Penicillin is one of its examples which have the function of eradicating other microbes from attacking human body.
White spots in the above figure show antibiotics with different intensity. The penicillin which is located at the bottom shows no black ring, meaning that it has no effective at all towards the germs called streptococcus.
Nowadays, human has abused the use of the antibiotic. The doctor for example, has to crack down head to prescribe other types of stronger and more dangerous antibiotics to fight against the diseases. Sometimes, doctor has to come to a stage that he himself has no ability to diagnose the disease as the germs have developed into more varieties that are indeed stronger to stand for medicines and vaccines. We are all at the worrying state to cope with more newly developed germs around us. Every one of us may have a possibility to get contact with these germs if we are unfortunate or unaware about personal hygiene and take no knowledge of health.
The misuse of antibiotics may not cure the disease but it just made things worst. It does not bring benefit to our health; instead it makes our body more prone to diseases. It seems like the super germs are hardly to eradicate nowadays.
Though the germs may appear small to human's eyes, their powerful attack should not be ignored. Many diseases occurred due to the negligence of human who may have wrongly interpreted the attack of germs towards their lives.
Someone has tied penicillin, radar and the atomic bomb during World War II as three big inventions human had ever made. Indeed, before the discovery of penicillin which has a role of antibiotic, human were exposed to more treats of unknown germs. Some lives had been taken away as the germs had conquered the normal cells by modifying their genetic codes, which eventually brought to the deaths.
In the 14th century, Black Death had swept across Europe. One third of its population died from the infectious diseases. In the human history, germs were the most terrible threats and it was first appeared in the beginning of the 16th century in America. The smallpox viruses were said to take away half of the population in Mexico.
Later, with the discovery of antibiotics, many infectious diseases such as smallpox, tuberculosis, meningitis and typhoid fever, was no longer an incurable disease. As a result, antibiotic has regarded as the most powerful weapon to eradicate those scary diseases. In the 1970s, the scientists thought that they had successfully eradicating diseases which meant to them as big advancement in a medical field.
Nevertheless, the success in eradicating the diseases sustained no longer as more drugs are found not effective to eradicate certain diseases. The medical experts have to admit that germs are more intelligent than human.
Nowadays, there is astonishing to discover that the virus has become more "robust" due to the excessive use of antibiotics. We are now introduced to MRSA or super disease which is claimed scarier than SARs.
Today, doctors prescribe more antibiotics to treat all types of diseases. Similarly, the livestock is fed with large quantity of antibiotics with the belief that their germs could wipe out more rapidly. As a consumer, are you aware that the antibiotic residues can easily enter your body when you eat the meat? Our body has become a dump site from those antibiotics and thus we are more vulnerable to some newly developed peculiar diseases.
Whenever patients take antibiotics, though the drugs may kill most bacteria, but they are some with strong resistance towards antibiotics escaping to other part of body. They dwelt in different part of cells and start multiplying to increase their species. Bacteria could resist antibiotics as this is a natural phenomenon in the nature rule. This fact lays out that the best survival of the fittest in accordance to Darwin's theory of evolution.
In the process of biological reproduction stage, the living things can have occasional variation in their gene, so do germs. They split in the genetic code but sometimes the genetic variation may cause them to have a slight difference of genetic properties.
Under normal circumstances, like other living things, these biological pathogens that live in a limited space will compete for limited resources to sustain their survival. As some of the germs have been killed by antibiotics, a small portion of germs which are resistible will start growing and multiplying at the astonishing stage. The excessive use of antibiotics, in other words, has given a momentum for germs to grow.
These biological pathogens are different from other higher level organisms as they don't need a longer time to breed. In the world of the germs, they breed to generations and colonies within an hour. There has been said that the genetic evolution of the microbial is faster than many higher organisms. There has been a fear that these germs will influence other healthy cells by changing their genetic codes to become their colonies. And lastly, the organs in human body will be in a mess and later being destroyed by them one by one. These situations are commonly happened in SARS, MRSA, AIDS and other chronic diseases.
The doctor from the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said, “We're now facing a consequence that the bacteria have gained more resistance from almost all antibiotics human used.”
In the mid-1990s, enterococci (enterococcus) appeared as a strong resistance towards antibiotics, which has stricken the alarm of “super bacteria.” The infection of Enterococcus can cause urinary tract infections or wounds, and even meningitis. It has developed resistance towards the killing capability of antibiotic which is named as vancomycin.
Previously, the Staphylococcus aureus was killed easily by an antibiotic which is called methicillin or Penicillin I. But now, the condition is that the Staphylococcus has gained resistance and they may have developed into new species. It has brought fear to doctors as Staphylococcus is the main infection at the hospital. If one day, methicillin has no ability to suppress newly developed staphylococcus, it will bring disaster to us. This explains that germ could mutate itself to a variety form that is more resistance to antibiotics.
Such so-called super germs have indeed emerged. In Tokyo, Japan, a microbial specialist has observed that a type of staphylococcus which has a code name of Mu50 is found resistance to vancomycin. This is because Mu50 has a considerably strong and thick wall which is not easy to kill by antibiotics. The discovery of new disease that has resistance towards antibiotics has also been reported in the United States, France and Hong Kong.
Facing with these super germs, of course, human beings are not necessarily helpless. Doctors can introduce more expensive, more advanced and more toxic drugs to subdue them. But the question here is who will be the final victim?
In fact, human has a tough war with the germ, and the war is not going to end there as many types of odd and unknown diseases have emerged from time to time.
