"Rising Antibiotic Resistance in Children Has Infectious Disease Experts Scared"

Kevin Leka

Mr. Ippolito

Core Bio H

6 March 2017

Wapner, Jessica. "Rising Antibiotic Resistance in Children Has Infectious Disease Experts Scared." Newsweek. N.p., 02 Mar. 2017. Web. 05 Mar. 2017. <http://www.newsweek.com/antibiotic-resistance-children-562575>.

For this weeks current event, I read, “Rising Antibiotic Resistance in Children Has Infectious Disease Experts Scared,” written by Jessica Wapner and published on Newsweek. Bacteria in our bodies have now grown to resist the antibiotics we are being prescribed and a new study claims and confirms the extent of infections with multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria and highlights the alarming rapid increase in numbers of bacteria (that can cause disease) that the current medications no longer can treat. Although this may not seem significant, it is a growing concern for disease experts worldwide. There was a case recently in the US, where a women with a urinary tract infection, had tried every single antibiotic that could help treat her symptoms and none of them worked since her bacteria had grown resistant to those antibiotics. The study went on to investigate MDR bacteria in 48 children’s hospitals across the United States. After using diagnostic and billing claim codes, they were able to identify the bacteria that seemed to be categorized as MDR. Out of 107,000 diagnoses in a bacterial infection, Enterobacteriaceae, 724 cases had MDR bacteria. Although that is less than one percent of the cases (0.68%), epidemiologist Sharon Meropol, the leader of the study says, “For infectious disease experts, it is ominous.” The article also revealed a scary fact, “That most of the MDR infections were present in the children before they arrived at the hospital,” meaning that there has been a large amount of MDR bacteria increasing and circulating in U.S. communities.

Wapner’s review on MDR bacteria and the study has brought attention to a lurking threat that is growing rapidly. Although this concerns scientists worldwide, it should concern members of the public who may not be able to treat simple diseases with antibiotics. David Cameron, the British Prime Minister from 2010-2016, says that antibiotics have stopped working for some people and these people are dying from simple conditions and infections that could have been cured by antibiotics like tuberculosis. This is extremely alarming as a global issue and even if were a still having slight changes in the United States, we need to act urgently before this grows into issue we cannot handle by identifying the outbreaks for infections more efficiently. Although Sharon Meropol made a good point by saying a 1.3 percent change in infections resistant to antibiotics “may not mean a lot [for the general public],” it is a growing concern globally and must be addressed effectively and urgently. Just imagine growing up in a society where simple infections are killing people because we are overusing antibiotics to the point where our body is resisting them. America has a large issue with antibiotics and the CDC has said, “At least 30 percent of antibiotics prescribed each year in the U.S. are unnecessary,” meaning that the extra antibiotics in our bodies allows the rapid increase of bacteria straining on our systems that a person can withstand during treatment.

This informative article was very well-written and scientific. The most impressive aspect of the article was the way in which Wapner was able to explain the study that took place and break down the results from the study. Wapner explained the study conducted by Meropol in the US over the course of eight years. However, the explanations of the study where lengthy at times and included sophisticated scientific vocabulary that needed to be defined. For example, when the article explains how extra antibiotic may affect you, “The excess presence of antibiotics enables the proliferations of bacterial strains that can withstand these treatments,” it is difficult to understand. If there were simpler words used in such a complex study than it would be easier for the reader to follow along. But, since this article was so intriguing and had an interesting topic it was worth the read. The author had great detail that drew my attention to reading through the lengthy paragraphs. Wapner should have provided a clear way for the reader to understand the study, the significance of MDR bacteria and what can be done in the future. A great aspect of Wapner’s article was how she used an immense amount of statistics and studies that helped support the urgency behind stopping MDR bacteria. Wapner referred to well established organizations that had conducted research in the past and used this facts as proof for the article. Another good aspect was that Wapner identified the strengths and weaknesses of the research by looking at possible bias and vulnerability behind the research. The article could improve by explaining the study instead of citing the study in the first paragraph. The article could also improve by answering the question, what can community members do to help stop MDR bacteria and what alternatives could there be to antibiotics. The article did not answer these questions either clearly or directly and if they were to fix this issue, explain the sources/the study and use less scientific vocabulary than it would greatly improve the article and not take away for the important topic being addressed regarding antibiotic resistant bacteria.