"Antibiotic resistance"I. AbstractWhen penicillin was first administered in 1943, it proved extraordinary in eradicating bad cases of syphilis, tuberculosis, gonorrhea and meningitis. With the threat of these deadly infections under control, pharmaceutical companies have therefore scaled back their quest to discover even more effective antibiotics. This newfound medical confidence inspired patients to cheerfully run to the clinic to get penicillin prescriptions for everything from nausea and diarrhea to runny noses and sneezing, and doctors to gleefully prescribe the "miracle drug." However, microorganisms are now evolving and developing unprecedentedly. resistance to penicillin and other once-potent drugs, such as vancomyocin. Currently, vancomyocin is the most potent drug on the market and ¼ of all enterococci are resistant to it ("A New Gap...", 1997). In the April 28, 1994 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers identified a bacterium that was resistant to all antibiotics (Lewis, 1997). The number of resistant bacterial strains is rapidly growing and panic is starting to spread in the medical field, caught "by surprise" by the most recent developments. It takes decades to develop new antibiotics, and pharmaceutical companies have spent the last few decades focusing on other problems. Even as our arsenal of antibiotics dwindles, it is clear that there will be no new “wonder drugs” for a long time. As we will soon run out of effective antibiotics, we must do what we can to preserve the strength of our current resources. This paper will provide a background on how antibiotics work and also the mechanism by which bacteria acquire resistance. Also part......middle of paper......bson, David. (1997b). How does resistance occur? [Online] Available: http://www3.hmc.edu/~dgibson/antibiotics/resistance.html.King, John WMD (1997). Antibiotic resistance. [Online] Available: http://www.ccm.Isumc.edu/bugbytes/bb-v2n13.htm.Lewis, Ricki PhD. (1997). The increase in antibiotic-resistant infections. [Online]Available: http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/795_antibio.html.Nemecek, Sasha. (1997, February). Beat bacteria. Scientific American, 38-39.(1997, June). A new gap in the antibiotic arsenal. Science News, 151, 348.(1996, May). Reduce antibiotic resistance. Nature, 381, 120-121.Smaglik, Paolo. (1997, May 17). Proliferation of pills. Science News, 151, 310-311.Thompson, Clare. (1997, June 8). False economies breed superbugs. New Scientist,6.Travis, John. (1996, June 1). Biological warfare. Science news, 149, 350-351.