A microscopic solution to a microscopic problem
What are antibiotics?
Modern medicine has an innumerable amount of ammunition in the battle against disease and infection. Pills, injections, surgery, transplantations, replacements, and electromagnetism can all be utilized in some shape or form to prevent illness and to insure sick patients grow healthy.
Antibiotics are, simply put, one of the many options available to patients suffering from disease. Antibiotics are antimicrobials – they either kill or prevent the growth of microorganisms. However, unlike most vaccines, which act against viruses, antibiotics are only able to counteract the effects of bacteria.
The difference between virus and bacteria forms the backbone for an understanding of antibiotics. Whereas viruses are not living organisms, bacteria are fully functional living organisms.
How do antibiotics work?
Antibiotics come in a variety of classes and each class of antibiotic acts against bacteria in specific ways. However, for the sake of simplicity, there are two major varieties of antibiotics: bactericides (which kill bacteria) and bacteriostats (which slow down the growth of bacteria).
What’s fascinating is that different classes of antibiotics target different bacterial structures. For example, penicillin acts by targeting a bacteria’s cell wall, while lincomycin targets a bacteria’s protein synthesis structures. Whereas penicillin attacks and attempts to kill bacteria, lincomycin instead prevents bacteria from growing and reproducing.
The manner in which we create antibiotics also varies. Some antibiotics are created through pure chemical synthesis, others are isolated from living organism, while others still are created through semisynthetic modifications of natural compounds.
Why are antibiotics important?
Louis Pasteur, regarded as the father of microbiology, hoped that further studying microorganisms could somehow lead to better medication and better medical therapy for suffering patients. Antibiotics are important for the simple reason that they act as a medical line of defence against otherwise imperceptible invasions, violations, and aggressions.
An understanding of antibiotics is now culturally necessary due to the increased usage of antibiotics, and the growing resistance developed by harmful bacteria. Much like any great shield, antibiotics have grown dull thanks to the countless times they have been used in medical combat. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report claiming that most humans would see a post-antibiotic era in the 21st Century, while doctors around the world have raised concern over the growing number of bacteria that are growing resistant to modern antibiotics.
In spite of these concerns, individuals must recognize the vital importance of antibiotic use in preventing the spread of disease. Much like vaccines, which have needlessly come under fire due to public misunderstanding, antibiotics are being treated like the very illnesses they combat, when they should be lauded for their effects on disease treatment and prevention.
What is the future of antibiotics?
In January 2015, researchers in the United States and Germany published a paper reporting the first new official antibiotic discovery in over 30 years. This means that humanity, for the first in almost three decades has a new shield against the antimicrobial offensive.
However, humanity looks toward two possible futures. In one, most bacteria have become resistant to most forms of antibiotic therapy. Humans struggle to overcome simple infections due to mutated super-bacteria, our overreliance on antibiotics, and our lack of foresight. In the other future, things are much brighter. Humans still contend with infection and illness – because some problems will always exist – but we are not concerned with highly resistant bacteria. Individuals are properly inoculated and communities receive the necessary shots and medication because we are educated and we do not fear medical science.
As always, I’m excited for the truly absurd possibilities.