Background:
Bacteria come in contact easily with antibiotic resistant genes and become resistant the only thing is when they do so it is hard for the bacteria to lose them. (5) Some bacteria have different threshold levels and are tolerant to some of the antibiotics. (2) This is why it is so important when doctors prescribe antibiotics that patients take them in the directed times and the entire prescription. Patients may take a prescription till they feel better. When taking antibiotics until feeling better causes the other bacteria that were not killed to be resistant to the antibiotic that was being taken. (1)
One of the reasons that it is inconvenient to take the full amount is because there are four doses of an antibiotic a day. Only taking the selected dosages is what can lead to antibiotic resistance in some cases. There are leading drugs that we have come about today that help stop or prevent antibiotic resistance. These drugs are long-acting macrolide antibiotics. Examples of these would be Azithromycin, Clarithromycin, and dirthronymycin. These three drugs have shown that they have fewer side effects and also do not have to be taken as long and still have the same results as other antibiotics. (3) These three drugs are one-a-day drugs; meaning only one pill has to be taken, normally on an empty stomach. (6) With other antibiotics such as penicillin there are many dosages a day and taking dosages is easily forgotten with busy working lives as most people have.(4) The thing is with these long-acting antibiotics are there are not very many of them and they are very expensive. Discovering a new antibiotic is wonderful but for to be able to bring it to Food and Drug Administration’s standards it cost 800 million dollars and takes up to and sometimes longer than 15 years. (5) It is time for our government to take on a new policy to fix this problem.
Policy:
The government, the Food Drug Administration (FDA), should grant pharmaceutical companies to formulate new versions of one-a-day antibiotics. The FDA will grant each pharmaceutical company 800 million dollars for each antibiotic they are working on and pick up any extra charges that might arise. There will be a tax put in place against cigarettes to get the 800 million dollars. The taxes will be five cents on every carton of cigarettes. The FDA will give three companies the grant each year for three years to see results and progress and then will assess and see if more should be given out or if less should be.
Conclusion:
Cigarette users would be upset with the new tax on each carton. But, it is proven though that cigarettes affect everyone not just the people that smoke them. It causes health problems for everyone. Maybe with the new tax it would make some think about it and quite helping themselves and others in more than one way. People will still smoke, but when people stop smoking everywhere, enough money will have been raised so we’ll already have new antibiotics.
To the people that don’t see why we would just give companies millions of dollars in the chance that an antibiotic might come from it. The United States gives millions of dollars away each year to other organizations and even countries. Why not help our own and others by trying to come up with new things.
Antibiotic resistance is a major problem and will continue to be if something is not done. With trying different polices to help bacteria not become resistant is only going to help us humans. Taking medications as directed is vital so helping pharmaceutical companies come up with new one-a-day antibiotics is something simple that can be done to help ourselves.
References
1.Health Canada. Antibiotic Resistant . December 2006. <http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/med/antibio-eng.php>. Accessed 2008 September 23
2.Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS. “Using Antibiotics Wisely” CIGNA. <http://www.cigna.com/healthinfo/hw63605spec.html> Accessed 2008 September 24.
3.Moore, Paul A. D.M.D., PH.D “Dental Therapeutic Indications for the Newer Long-Acting Macrolide Antibiotics.” American Dental Association. September 1999 Vol. 130 Page 1341-1343.
4.Physicians Drug Reference. Prescription Drugs. Penicillin V Potassium. <http://www.pdrhealth.com/drugs/rx/rx-mono.aspx?contentFileName=Pen1324.html&contentName=Penicillin+V+Potassium&contentId=426.>. Accessed 2008 September 24
5.Slayer and Witt. Revenge of the Microbes. American Society for Microbiology, DC. Copyright 2005
6.Pliva “Zithromax”. Page 1-33 Copyright 2008 <http://media.pfizer.com/files/products/uspi_zithromax.pdf>
