Introduction| Irish Luck|A Brief History of Penicillin|
Penicillin and Bacteria| Penicillin Affects History: Thanks to Penicillin, He will Come Home!!|
History Affects Penicillin:|References|
The discovery of penicillin controlled many life-threatening diseases, reduced the tolls of death and illnesses, and increased the life expectancy worldwide (Schlessinger, 1993, p.90). However, many cases were reported later in which penicillin or any antibiotic had any effect in curing or reducing the danger of the infectious disease. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria complicated treatment of illnesses starting with simple infections such as ear infection to deadly infections such as pneumonia and tuberculosis. The problem with anti-biotic resistance is that it is random. Any use of antibiotics whether “appropriate” or “inappropriate,” can lead to the emergence and spread of anti-biotic resistance. The appropriate use of antibiotics is the use that helps the patient by killing the bacteria that caused the infection and stop its spread in the body. Inappropriate use of antibiotic is the use that does not help the patient or stop the infectious disease. On the opposite, it increases the risk of promoting the spread of anti-biotic resistant bacteria (U.S. Congress, office of technology assessment, 1995, p. 50).
Many studies have proved that there is a direct relationship between the use of antibiotics and the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria (McGowan, 1983, p. 1035). Accordingly, the reducing the inappropriate use of antibiotic may lower the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Sometimes, resistant microbes emerge even when antibiotics are used properly. However, the effect of these resistant microbes will not be as obvious as it is when the antibiotics are used inappropriately. Resistant strains can “infect other individuals and spread within a community or institution. They cal also transfer the genetic information for resistance to other bacteria” (U.S. Congress, office of technology assessment, 1995, p. 50-51).