LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Antibiotic
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Antibiotic overuse by children is an increasing concern for parents and health professionals. Concern by parents is often driven by the worry that antibiotics suppress the immune system, a belief for which there is so far little good evidence. Concerns by health professionals are driven by worries about the rise of bacterial resistance. The overuse of common antibiotics such as amoxycillin is unmistakably increasing resistance to these antibiotics in the community, meaning that more powerful second line antibiotics increasingly have to be used for simple infections. This has a cascade effect, resulting in the slow erosion of doctors’ ability to treat serious infection.
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Antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to withstand the effects of an antibiotic. It is a specific type of drug resistance. Antibiotic resistance evolves naturally via natural selection through random mutation, but it could ... be engineered by applying an evolutionary stress on a population. Once such a gene is generated, bacteria can then transfer the genetic information in a horizontal fashion (between individuals) by plasmid exchange. If a bacterium carries several resistance genes, it is called [M]ultiresistant or, informally, a superbug.
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The Antibiotic Assistant LE ... offers proprietary and clinically relevant Infection Control Quick Guides. These provide guidelines for managing infectious diseases and offer the most up-to-date content describing infections, organisms and isolation precautions for specific types of outbreaks. The guides are linked to national resources, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Antibiotic products can take on many different forms. They can be sold in solutions for intravenous bags or syringes, in pill or gel capsule form, or they may be sold as powders, which are incorporated into topical ointments. Depending on the final form of the antibiotic, various refining steps may be taken after the initial isolation. For intravenous bags, the crystalline antibiotic can be dissolved in a solution, put in the bag, which is then hermetically sealed. For gel capsules, the powdered antibiotic is physically filled into the bottom half of a capsule then the top half is mechanically put in place. When used in topical ointments, the antibiotic is mixed into the ointment.
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Antibiotic resistance in bacteria can ... be achieved when mutations in a ribosome or protein change the site where an antibiotic binds. For example, four of the antibiotics mentioned earlier, tetracycline, streptomycin, kanamycin, and spectinomycin, bind to a specific region of a ribosome and interfere with protein synthesis. Mutations may prevent an antibiotic from binding to the ribosome (kanamycin)[12] or allow the ribosome to function even while the antibiotic is bound (streptomycin and spectinomycin).[5] Although it appears these mutations are beneficial and provide an advantage to the bacterium possessing them, they all come with a cost. Ribosomal mutations, while providing antibiotic resistance for the organism, slow the process of protein synthesis, slow growth rates, and reduce the ability of the affected bacterium to compete in an environment devoid of a specific antibiotic.[13,14] Furthermore, a mutation that confers resistance to one antibiotic may make the bacterium more susceptible to other antibiotics.[15] These deleterious effects are what would be expected from a creationist model for mutations. The mutation may confer a benefit in a particular environment, but the overall fitness of the population of one kind of bacterium is decreased as a result of a reduced function of one of the components in its biological pathway. The accumulation of mutations doesn't lead to a new kind of bacterium—it leads to extinction.
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Antibiotic resistance is when bacteria change in a way that makes antibiotics work less or in some cases not at all. These resistant bacteria survive and multiply - causing more harm, such as a longer illness, more doctor visits, and a need for more expensive and toxic antibiotics. Resistant bacteria may even cause death. Antibiotic resistance has been called one of the world's most pressing public health problems. One type of antibiotic resistant bacteria is methicillin resistant Staphilococcus aureus, or MRSA.
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