By Ida Shim Y10
Nowadays, getting a small cut is not a big deal, but imagine that becoming a life-threatening situation because no antibiotic can cure the infection. This absurd scenario is becoming increasingly possible due to antibiotic resistance, as scientists warn.
What is Antibiotic Resistance?
Antibiotics are medicines that fight bacterial infections in humans and animals by killing bacteria or by preventing their reproduction. However, some bacteria have certain traits caused by random mutations that allow them to survive antibiotics. These survivors reproduce, thus over time, bacteria become resistant, somewhat similar to the process of natural selection. Antibiotic resistant bacteria are no longer stopped by existing antibiotics, so scientists need to find a new antibiotic, which often takes years and leaves humans vulnerable to that bacteria.
One example is MRSA(methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), which are bacteria that gained resistant to methicillin antibiotics.
How Humans Caused the Problem
Humans have elevated antibiotic resistances due to overuse in medicine. Taking antibiotics for viral infections like colds or flue is one example of overuse, as well as not finishing prescriptions and overprescription by doctors.
Additionally, antibiotic uses in agriculture also increased their resistance; livestock are often given antibiotics to grow faster and prevent disease, and resistant bacteria can spread through food and water.
Why Antibiotic Resistance Is Dangerous
Antibiotic resistance might be seen as a minor issue, but it constitutes of many consequences including:
- Minor infections becoming deadly
- Higher death rates
- Longer hospital stays
- Increased medical costs
In modern medicine, many medical procedures depend on antibiotics, such as surgeries, chemotherapy, organ transplants, and childbirth. Without effective antibiotics, these become far riskier.
“Superbugs” and Real-World Examples
Superbugs are bacteria, viruses, parasites, or fungi that have mutated and developed resistance to most of the medications and antibiotics commonly used to treat the infections that they cause.
Tuberculosis strains resistant to multiple drugs(MDR-TB, Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis) are one of the real-world examples which kills approximately 150,000 to 160,000 people annually worldwide, along with drug-resistant gonorrhea and hospital-acquired infections.
Millions of resistant infections occur globally each year, and scientists warn resistance could cause millions of deaths annually in the future.
What Scientists Are Doing
Scientists are researching and creating new antibiotics that can kill bacteria in different ways, making it harder for bacteria to develop resistance. However, developing new drugs is expensive and slow, which is why researchers are also trying to improve how existing antibiotics are used.
One other efforts scientists are making is phage therapy. Phage Therapy uses special viruses called bacteriophages, or phages, to infect and destroy harmful bacteria. Its difference from antibiotics is that they target specific bacteria, reducing damage to helpful bacteria in the body and offering a possible solution for growing of antibiotic-resistant infections.
Additionally, artificial intelligence is helping scientists search through millions of chemical compounds much faster than humans normally can. AI systems developed by companies like DeepMind, which was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, can identify potential new antibiotics and speed up drug discovery, saving both time and money.
Read more about 2024 Nobel Prize for AI-related drug discovery and protein structure prediction here:
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2024/press-release/
What We Can Do
Even though most people aren’t scientists who can develop new drugs, there are simple actions that often accumulate to a better solution: only using antibiotics when prescribed reduces bacteria exposure to antibiotics, preventing rapid resistant mutation growth.
Furthermore, finishing prescriptions correctly, improving hygiene and vaccination, and reducing unnecessary antibiotic use in farming will also contribute greatly to reducing production and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Antibiotics transformed modern medicine and saved millions of lives. Ironically, it also lead to production of even more powerful superbugs, and now humanity is at risk to lose one of its greatest discoveries. Unless governments, scientists, and ordinary people act responsibly, antibiotic resistance could pull our society back to a time when even simple infections were deadly. However, with global cooperation and innovation in science, the rise of superbugs can still be slowed.
- NLCS Jeju
