The Idea of an Essay, Volume 2

190 words of one source, “Multidrug-resistance organisms are one of the world’s top health problems” (Lilley et al 608). Currently, several types of Staph, Strep, Tuberculosis, Salmonella, E. coli, and many other infectious diseases strongly resist antibiotic treatment (CDC Office of Infectious Diseases 16-17). Antibiotic resistant bacteria present a major medical problem for modern humanity, and although many different solutions have potential, medical professionals must control bacterial resistance by cooperating with patients on a combination of strict hospital protocol and limited use of antibiotic medication. While bacterial illness is a major problem that the medical world must address, bacteria do not cause every type of disease. A prerequisite for the study of antibiotic resistance is to know that humans also face the problem of viruses. The key difference between a bacterium and a virus is that a bacterium is a complete cell, capable of living on its own, whereas a virus must infect an already living cell. Antibiotics can only kill bacteria, not viruses, because they interfere in different ways with the life process of the bacterium cell as a whole. If researchers and doctors used this same strategy against viruses, they would kill normal body cells along with the viruses. Therefore, the issue of antibiotic resistance applies only to bacterial diseases. Obviously, bacteria are the cause of bacterial diseases. In her article “Antibiotics and the Rise of Superbugs,” Georgina Casey, director of Continuing Professional Development for Nurses, explains that “bacteria are prokaryotes, which are single-cell organisms lacking a nucleus or other membrane-bound organelles,” and they can be harmful if they directly attack cells or produce toxins that damage cell processes (20). Although various types of harmful bacteria are everywhere, under normal circumstances epithelial tissue barriers such as skin and the walls of the digestive tract work with the immune system to keep these dangerous microbes in check. When the bacteria are able to reproduce quickly and overwhelm the immune system, however, the human body has problems. Like a swarm of locusts on desert vegetation, bacteria can quickly shut down the processes necessary to sustain life, kill the individual, and go on to reproduce and infect the next person. That is how deadly epidemics such as Bubonic Plague killed so many in the past. The advent of antibiotic medication in the mid Twentieth