Esej č. 3
17. 12. 2008
Antibiotics are not the cure for everything
With the discovery of the penicillin in 1928 by Alexander Fleming, it seemed all our health worries were over. If we feel ill, whether it is a cold, flu, cough or just a raised temperature, there’s nothing easier than just going to he doctor for a prescription of antibiotics. Shortly after we begin treatment, we are right back at the activities which probably were the cause of our illness. But are we really cured? What long term affects do antibiotics have on our health?
We almost eat them as if they were sweets. Last year in the Czech Republic more than 12 millions packages of antibiotics were used. Medical literature says that one of the problems is in the massive and wrong overusing of antibiotics. In the book Review of the Infectious Diseases is stated that antibiotics are wrongly prescribed in half the cases in the USA. The situation is similar in the Czech Republic. The other thing is that the doctors are often compelled to prescribe the antibiotics by the patients, and often prescribe them as pre-emptive medicine for infections that have not yet appeared. Also 1 in 5 TV advertisements focus on the benefit of indiscreet antibiotic use. The antibiotics are often used for viral infections of the ear, nose or throat, but it is well known fact that antibiotics are only useful against bacterial infections. It would be interesting to find out whether the doctors are aware of when to use antibiotics or not.
In the Czech Republic the pharmaceutical business is flooded with competitors and according to the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic more than half of antibiotics used are applied to the animals. Beef, chicken, pork and other common products are filled with antibiotics so the antibiotics are getting into our bodies whether we want them or not. The Czech Ministry of Health has started a campaign about antibiotics and their over usage, but it doesn’t seem that it is helping. The traditional idea of going to bed and drinking hot tea is not acceptable in our hurried society of action and progress.
We can’t find the time for a natural way of treatment and why should we when we have the miracle cure of antibiotics? We don’t want to bother with reading the information leaflet, but if we wouldn’t obey these instructions we could suffer several consequences. The wrong usage of antibiotics over time can seriously harm our immune system when we are threatened with a serious illness and need it most. This can cause the emergence of other more serious illnesses; on top of those which caused why we see the doctor at the first time. Wrongly used antibiotics can destroy harmless and important bacteria in our digestion.
What are most significant is bacteria and viruses are becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics. The population of the microbes can change their genetic code and become immune from the lethal poison in antibiotics. Situation in the Czech Republic isn’t as bad as in other countries such as France or Italy, but his may not last long. The number of new bacteria and viruses are increasing so scientists must discover new and better antibiotics. The bacteria are stronger and it could happen that the people will be dying of new illnesses because of the rising number of ineffective antibiotics.
Health is the most important thing which we should try to be responsible for it. In these days some people seem to feel it is much more important for us to have money than to be healthy. The over usage of antibiotics is threat to us. It may come to pass that in the future people will be dying from very simple illnesses unless they wouldn’t stop taking antibiotics for everything and anything. Then we will need someone as it was in the past Alexander Fleming to come along with a new cure for such diseases.