Page 57 - Reading Success B6

Previous treatments for infections, which included poisons like arsenic had high
levels of toxicity. As a result, these medicines were hazardous to administer

because they could be as equally harmful and beneficial to a sick patient. Thus,
the arrival of antibiotic drugs was considered a medical breakthrough. This type of

drug kills or prevents the growth of bacteria. It has no or few side effects and it
targets the disease without harming the person taking it. Thus, antibiotic drugs

have been hailed as “ magic bullets ” within the medical community. However,
antibiotic drugs are effective only against bacteria. They are not effective in viral,

fungal and other nonbacterial infections, and individual antibiotics vary widely in
their effectiveness on different types of bacteria.

Another disadvantage of taking antibiotics is the case of antibiotic resistance,

which is similar to pesticide resistance in insects. Close to 100% of the infecting
organisms in an illness should be killed off by an antibiotic. In cases where some

of these infecting organisms survive, that strain of surviving organisms can
develop immunity to the antibiotic drug used to treat the illness. As a result, the

antibiotic drug becomes useless.

This phenomenon has become a serious problem. In certain settings, such as
hospitals, the rate of antibiotic resistance is so high that the normal, low cost

antibiotics are virtually useless for the treatment of frequently seen infections. This
leads to greater use of newer and more expensive drugs, which in turn leads to

the rise of resistance to those drugs, and a race to discover new and different
antibiotics continues on.

Main Idea

What is the main idea of this story?

a. antibiotics are an effective treatment for all diseases
b. most bacteria do not develop a resistance to antibiotic drugs

c. all though antibiotics are an effective treatment against bacteria they become
less effective as resistance builds

d. antibiotics should stop being used in hospitals

60_Reading Success B 6