Question

What is your opinion about the constant usage of antibiotics now days? Is there side effects of over usage? Name specific examples and their mode of action in your discussion.

Answer 1

Constant usage of antibiotics are causing some problems not quickly but gradually. The constant use of antibiotics cause the emergence of antibiotic resistance in many microbes. Continuous exposure to the antibiotic again and again will create a mutant resistant microbe population. Slowly this population will be established and they will be resistant to the antibiotic. This enables them to infect very easily and we can't control it using antibiotics. Antibiotic resistant microbes are very hard to control and become a serious health issue in long run.

Secondly antibiotic is not a selective killer of microbes. It kills all that came into contact. So it may include many beneficial microbes living in the intestine. These microbes may be killed off and hence it leads to the deficiency of some important nutrients like vitamins.

Some examples are amoxicillin and azithromycin which are commonly used antibiotics. In older times a mild dose of 250mg etc was enough to controll the infection. But now it is not effective and needs atleast 500mg. So some microbes are getting resistant to the mild doses of those antibiotics. Slowly they become completely resistant. This will create deep trouble