Infectious Disease Persuasive Essay

Ancestors of modern day bacteria were some of the first forms of life on Earth. Their existence is estimated to have originated 4 billion years ago. Unicellular organisms have endured through mass extinctions including the most severe of all, at the end of the Permian period 250 million years ago, which caused 96% of species that were around at the time to perish. Time has proven that bacteria are natural masters of survival and thrive in the most extreme of environments. They are found virtually everywhere and there are trillions of bacteria cells inside you right now! Most are harmless and even beneficial however some are lethal to humans. Infectious diseases were the greatest cause of mortality in the 20th century until the discovery of
It is thought that half the time antibiotics are taken they aren’t needed. Doctors need to be more selective when prescribing these drugs and better educate patients on the ramifications of misuse. People take antibiotics for granted, mindlessly consuming them perceiving it as a rapid and convenient cure to avoid feeling mildly sick. Behaviour like this is unethical and those who exploit antibiotics are at fault for millions of lives that will be lost in the future to diseases including pneumonia, gonorrhoea, tuberculosis and syphilis that are currently treatable. Common cold and flu are caused by viruses and do not need to be treated with antibiotics. When people are given prescriptions they must take it for the full duration and not stop early even if they are feeling better. Doing so results in bacteria causing the infection to survive passing on any resistant traits. Antibiotics are used in agriculture to decrease production costs of livestock by promoting growth and preventing disease. There is evidence of this abundant use linking to resistant infections in humans. Antibacterial hand washes are another case of misusing antibiotics. There is no scientific evidence for these cleaning products decreasing infection rates or being better than regular soap and water. If caution isn’t taken regarding the use of antibiotics it will not be long before the golden age of antibacterials comes to an