Antibiotics: Where The Buck Stops?
Antibiotics were discovered in the twentieth century just prior to the start of WWII. Fortunately, the discovery of penicillin allowed Allied forces to leapfrog successfully from battle to battle without suffering significant losses. Post-WWII medicine ultimately rose to pinnacles of success by nearly eliminating bacterial infections. The reasons for their eventual diminishing potency is due to a multi-faceted resistance that follow the laws of evolution. One of the truly misunderstood aspects of anti-biotic resistance is the role of human-mediated evolution.
Evolution for all of its misunderstandings will never change-- it is up to the individual to change their behavior to avert complete disasters that await us from total anti-biotic resistance. So, the first lesson? What is evolution...
Evolution
What does it mean?
Evolution isn't just a theory--it is fact. The misnomer of facts as theories is sloppy thinking. Firstly, how do we change perceptions of facts versus theories?
Roughly speaking;
Theories abound in science, mathematics, and engineering. However, the meanings differ slightly across the three disciplines: engineering, science, and mathematics. A theory to a mathematician is based on axioms, corollaries, and proofs. A theory in science is subject to change because new discoveries alter theories that eventually become physical laws. In engineering disciplines, theories are built from mathematics and sciences. In addition to the mathematics and the sciences, engineers employ economic principles that ultimately dictate the differences. A theory to engineers is a multi-faceted discipline -- calculus (higher level mathematics) and scientific principles are employed to determine cost-effectiveness. [It is also known by the terms -- return on investment (ROI).]
The Second Lesson?
Why do drugs become resistant to bacteria...
Bacteria are alive-- they are tiny, miniscule, un-observable, miss-labeled, and misunderstood. A virus is not a bacterium. Viruses, for all intensive purposes, are not living entities. Antibiotics are (normally) not prescribed for viral infections.
It is the miss-stated and the misinterpreted differences between viruses and bacteria that gave ordinary people (like you and me) their ignorant stances-- plain and simple.
When a family physician prescribes an antibiotic, the physician will state in no uncertain terms: take as prescribed until all tablets are gone. When I or you take a physician's words out of context-- technically we break the law. We disable physicians from carrying out their oath-- to do no harm.
What many patients misunderstand, they partner with their doctors to properly care for themselves by finishing their medicine. Perhaps it should be made illegal for patients to not complete their medication regimen-- that may prove to be incentive?
Ultimately by not finishing your antibiotic, not all bacteria are eliminated from patient and (usually) secondary infections abound.
Drugs are invented, formulated, and sold under laboratory and semi-real conditions-- pharmaceutical companies have honed their expertise to eliminate bacterial infections.
The Third Lesson?
Educators need to re-educate the present and subsequent generations of humanity on the differences between viruses and bacteria. Further consideration by educators is to teach all that drugs and pharmaceuticals need to be taken seriously-- it ain't a trip to candy store that will assure our survival...
With irreversible climate change seemingly on our doorstep, we stand perilously close to a vast 'pseudo-extinction' event. It is frightening to know that certain people who masquerade as authorities (politicians, influencers, and media savvy celebrities) advocating for 'a change because they can't accept physical laws and realities.'
The reality we face -- humanity will be to blame for their own extinction.
Ignorance is not an illness, but it is terminal.
The Final Lesson?
We have one earth and the sooner we learn to live without strife will be the day we survive together.
REFERENCES to explore:
Penicillin:
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