M6.6 Blog: Use of Antibiotics

Antibiotic resistance in human occurs when antibiotic is used unnecessarily or inappropriately, losing the antibiotic’s effectiveness. A study found poultry workers infected with e coli resistant to gentamicin, an antibiotic commonly used in chicken. E coli infection is 32 times higher is poultry or farm industry workers. The US vastly use antibiotics on livestock, not to treat sick animals but for disease prevention and growth promotion.  The FDA and the Congress should pass the act that would prevent antibiotic resistance, which would ban non-therapeutic uses of antibiotic in livestock. This should be enforced by the USDA by providing training and technical assistance to livestock producers. I also think livestock antibiotics should be given by certified personnel to assure right amount is given as necessary. Livestock should be grouped into smaller numbers so diseases do not spread to the whole farm organization. Furthermore, antibiotic should only be given in groups of livestock infected with bacteria.

Like in a hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina, the county hospital I am currently working started using “sanicloth” disinfectant for inanimate objects, and hand alcohol gels for hands. Housekeeping does terminal cleaning of rooms and furniture just unoccupied by an MRSA, c-diff, or vancomycin resistant enterococcus infected patient. Often, these patients come back with the same infection, even worst. And now we have what we call Carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE). Even MRSA is common in the community and, who knows, all health workers in hospital are positive for MRSA, not only through hospital transmission but also in communities with pig and calf farms. According to study done by John Hopkins postdoctoral fellow Beth Feingold, “the density of veal calves, pigs or cattle doubles in a specific area, the odds of carrying livestock-associated MRSA increases between 24 percent and 77 percent, depending on the animal.” I think that sometimes “overdoing” it in the hospital setting to kill germs and infection exposes individuals to increased risks of antibiotic resistance. Overdoing could include unnecessary antibiotics in living organism and unnecessary antimicrobials to hospital furnishing.