Hunting the nightmare bacteria discussion questions

paper should be 375-500 words in length, which corresponds to 1½-2 double-spaced pages with 1-inch margins, 12 point Times New Roman font, and minimal spacing elements.

The video clearly makes the point that bacteria of many types, for example, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPC), bacteria carrying the NDM-1 gene, and Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), are becoming increasingly resistant to the effects of antibiotics. (Note: People and animals do not become resistant to antibiotics! This is a common misconception.) The resulting difficulty in treating certain bacterial infections will likely continue to be an ongoing problem for years to come. Although the video does a great job of demonstrating the consequences of antibiotic resistance, it just briefly addresses how we got to this point and it discusses only one action (more antibiotic development) that might reduce the problem.

Since antibiotics became commercially available in the 1940s, a number of human actions have led us to the current problem of antibiotic resistance. Some of these actions include:

Doctors overusing and misusing antibiotics, including inappropriately prescribing them for viral infections (to keep patients happy and feeling well cared for)
Patients demanding antibiotics to treat viral infections (because they think viruses and bacteria are more or less the same things, and therefore antibiotics should work against both types of microbes)
Failure by patients to take their antibiotics exactly as prescribed (for example, stopping treatment when they feel better instead of when the prescription is gone, saving unused antibiotics for the next time they get sick, or sharing antibiotics with friends or family)
Using antibiotics in animal feed to make animals grow faster by preventing bacterial diseases
Formulating antibacterial soaps that contain antimicrobial chemicals (some of these chemicals are closely related to antibiotics)