The use and abuse of anti-biotics

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 10th grade February 2008

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This essay will be describing the good and bad sides to anti-biotics.how they can be safely used or dangerously abused of. An antibiotic (anti biotic) is often a medication made from a natural, or at most, semi-synthetic substance This means that the medication is derived from a bacterium, a fungus, the bark of a tree, and so on. An antibiotic is any chemical substance produced by or derived from a microorganism that has the capacity in dilute solutions to destroy or inhibit the growth of bacteria, fungi or other harmful microorganisms without damaging the host. The first safe and effective a well-known example is penicillin, which comes from the meld made by the fungus, Penicillium. The resulting common drug, penicillin, and its derivatives are common antibiotics still used today. Antibiotics are used to treat a variety of diseases around the world. These diseases include: sinus infections, bronchitis, ear infections, urinary tract infections, gynaecological infections, skin infections, sexually transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis.

Because many bio terrorism agents are bacterial, antibiotics are the first line of defence after an attack has occurred. Ant fungal and ant parasitic drugs are also available to specifically combat particular infections.

Alexander Flemming discovered penicillin in the famous "mould in petri dish experiment" in 1928. Flemming realized that the mould in his petri dish was producing a substance that was killing the bacteria. However, he was unable to convert the original form - Penicillin G - into a form, which was stable enough to be useful, and so he abandoned his work in 1931. Florey, chain and Heatley resumed the work in 1935, and the substance they produced was successfully trialled in humans in 1940.

Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822 in Dole, in the region of Jura, France. His discovery that most infectious diseases...