Health care in our country and around the world has become a crucial issue of concern. One element that will stay in the foreground is antibiotic resistance of germs, or better termed bacteria. Pathogenic or disease-causing bacteria which once were treatable with a standard protocol of antibiotics now are showing up in labs and patients as resistant and ever-changing to new regimens of treatment. How does the public perceive of this issue, and how do informative organizations present this problem? I found three common organizations on the internet that dealt fairly well with the matter.
In CNN's Health line, an article dealt with MRSA treatment with a 2 year old child. On the New York Times Money & Policy page of all things presented a report of pharmacies handing out free prescription drugs at low cost to consumers. Thirdly on Wikipedia's subheading under Antibacterials, a very detail-oriented sub-captioned report offered readers multiple pages of information on bacterial resistance, with a scientific noted background on how bacteria develop resistance, and how to avoid being a patient in that situation. Wikipedia listed 93 separate notations on this whole workup. Their article sub paragraphs on use and misuse of antibiotics noted authors from Trends in Microbiology, ( a knowledgeable scientific journal).
All three of the websites I found appeared to present an informed concern on the subject of drug resistance. Two, (CNN & NY Times) provided comment/feedback sections at the end of their articles. The latter also promoted the issue in a matter-of-fact structure. They were up front about cause and effect of misuse and prescribing of antibiotics. Wikipedia dealt with it further by mentioning the use of antibiotics in agriculture to provide livestock animals with more weight. I might add that I wasn't aware that cattle or cows would gain weight if given antibiotics. They directly related this to an increase seen in pathogenic colon (stomach) bacteria called Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Enterococcus, just to name a few. Wikipedia seemed very detail oriented, and used more professional scientific vocabulary than I imagined they would have in this scenario.
Overall these three popular sites approached the subject of antibiotic resistance on a very broad scale. Their articles appeared to provide background and information that the general public would find useful and would lead them to other sites that generate more questions about this critical subject in medicine. Their use of vocabulary would not go over anyone's head who hadn't taken say a microbiology or even a biology course.However, Wikipedia I found the most scientific laden with wording and structure. On a rhetorical scale it appeared that the information I viewed was objective and informative, but given the issue at hand, didn't become overwhelmingly technical. They treated the issue quite seriously in their formats.
Works Cited:
Antibacterials: Resistance and Misuse. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, pages 1-16
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibacterial Downloaded 15 Oct 2011
Parker-Pope, T. Free Antibiotics May Contribute to Drug Resistance, Officials Say. 2009 Mar 5 Money and Policy Page, NY Times.
Available from:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/health/policy/05drugs.html
Downloaded 17 Oct 2011
Rice, S. CNN Medical Producer. Empowered Patient- MRSA: Protect Your Kid from a Superbug,
8 Sept 201l.
Available from http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/01/health/child-mrsa-infections/index.html Downloaded 17 Oct 2011
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