Down with Antibiotics

Imagine a world where antibiotics no longer exist, or are no longer effective. The world would be filled with fatal illnesses that once had a cure, a world with lethal pandemics. Sounds familiar right? Oh yeah! This is what the world was like before antibiotics. People were dying left and right, dropping like flies. I wish I could say this would never happen again, but if that were the case, I would not be writing this blog. When I think of 2050, I think of flying cars, robots that look like humans and coexist with us, and, well now, a world with no effective antibiotics. This doesn’t seem right? Wake up people, this is happening! Due to people’s incorrect and overuse of antibiotics this is what our future looks like, unfortunately.

So who really is misusing antibiotics? It seems like common sense not to, but many people are still misusing them. This includes not taking the full coarse of antibiotics, overuse of antibiotics, and taking a small dose of a friend’s medication. An article by Consumer Reports did a study that focuses on how many people take antibiotics without a prescription in the US. They did multiple surveys, but one of the major ones included 496 parents who kept their children’s old antibiotics. In this study the researchers found that a whopping 73% of parents gave their children’s left over antibiotics to another child of theirs. So not only are they not finishing a coarse of antibiotics but they are also giving a partial antibiotic to another child. So they are basically making a whole antibiotic resistant family. Nice … NOT! To make matters even more depressing, in another study, they found 1/4 of people they were testing willingly admitted they were planning to take antibiotics that were not prescribed to them. Well this is a big problem! As I’m sure you already know, a world without antibiotics is NOT a world you should want to live in. That is a terrifying thought. But why else, other than the obvious antibiotic-resistant debacle, is taking too many antibiotics bad? You’re about to find out!

Turns out, antibiotics can alter gut microbiome and overall health of host. Well, so much for all that kombucha you’ve been drinking! A study in Nature Research, looked at three healthy individual’s microbiota, and the effects the antibiotic ciprofloxacin had on their microbiome. This showed a decrease in richness and diversity by 33% in the individual’s microbiota, which they found in their fecal matter. There were some taxa that did not recover from this damage even after 6 months of treatment. Whether this study was ethical not beats me, but one thing is for sure antibiotic mistreatment needs to go.