Are antibiotics fighting a losing battle?

Photo by: Abby Bellow

The antibiotics individuals trust to fight off infections may no longer work.

Since penicillin – the first natural antibiotic – was mass-produced during World War II, antibiotics have potentially saved millions of lives. Concerns are now growing worldwide on the waning effects of antibiotics. Bacterial infections appear to be increasingly resistant to antibiotic medications, with overuse cited as the major contributing factor.

Sophomore biology major Sarah Hufstedler said antibiotics are becoming more commonly used to treat illness, but they are used when they aren’t really necessary.

“It’s like whenever you find a really good thing and you just want to apply it to everything because it makes things better usually, and so it’s like a quick fix,’” Hufstedler said. “But the problem with that is once you start taking antibiotics for everything, it’s not going to be able to help you as much because those illnesses you may be fighting are going to get used to it.”

According to the Center for Disease Control, antibiotics cure bacterial infections, not viral infections. Taking antibiotics for viral infections such as a cold, cough, the flu or most bronchitis will not cure the infections.

Hufstedler said that antibiotics should be taken as a last resort if a person is sick.

“[Patients] go in for little bitty things that they just don’t necessarily need medicine to fix,” Hufstedler said.

This overuse prevents the body’s immune system from strengthening naturally.

“The best thing is to try and heal naturally and as a last resort take an antibiotic, because they still do work, but you don’t need to take it for every little thing,” Hufstedler said. “If your body cannot fight off something by itself naturally, an antibiotic is just fighting off the [infection] for you.”

Associate Professor of Biology Al Mikell said that while overusing antibiotics is a problem, there is no cause for panic.

“We shouldn’t be screaming and running around in the streets, but we should be concerned,” Mikell said. “I think there is a reason to be concerned. There is no reason to be hysterical.”

Mikell agreed that antibiotics should be used as a last resort, and said that part of the problem is people want to get better sooner than what is actually possible.

“We’re all very important and we need to get well very quickly, so a lot of times we take antibiotics when we really shouldn’t even take them,” Mickell said. “We beg for the best antibiotic just because we heard about it or we think that’s the best one. So when we lose those guys, you know it’s not working. And so you’re hoping someone’s got a new one on them.”

Many of the issues facing antibiotics stem from a misunderstanding of how antibiotics are used and what they are used for, Mikell said.

“People need to be careful that they’re not pushing to get drugs that won’t do them any good,” Mikell said.

For over 80 years antibiotics have continued to improve as more and more people became dependent on them, but bacteria continues to change as well.

“Part of it I think is that we know they can do miraculous things and that we really don’t take the time for our health that we probably should,” Mikell said. “There’s things that we need to do for our health that have prevented it.”

Senior biology major Jeremy Lasso said many times people will not fully use the prescribed amount of antibiotics and that causes the bacteria to adapt. Many infections in people’s bodies could be defeated without the use of antibiotics, he said.

“When you take antibiotics … you start to feel better so you stop taking them, however, you’ve only killed off the entirely sensitive and immediately sensitive, so then you have the highly resistant ones left,” Lasso said. “So that’s why antibiotics work less, because now you’re only fighting off the ones that are highly resistant to antibiotics in the first place.”

Lasso emphasized people should only take antibiotics if they cannot heal on their own.

“If we can fight [bacteria] off ourselves then why [take antibiotics]?” Lasso said. “Antibiotics just kind of help speed up that process.”

Lasso recommended natural remedies to fight off minor ailments, only using antibiotics as a last resort.