Antibiotic resistance

So, in the interest of actually doing something about the John Rose Essay (as I haven't done anything yet). I thought I'd take a quick look to try and determine what information was generally out there about antibiotics. First stop wikipedia:

• 1 Causes and risk factors
• 2 Mechanisms
• 3 Resistant pathogens
  • 3.1 Pseudomonas
• 4 Role of animals
• 5 Alternatives
  • 5.1 Prevention
  • 5.2 Phage therapy
• 6 Development of new drugs
• 7 Applications

It's not bad. They spend a lot less time on the mechanisms than I'd like too, and far more time listing the main Bad Guys of the resistance world. There's also a lot more they could put under 'applications', but I can't write too much about that because that's what I'm researching at the moment :)

Next stop, the website of the department of health. They are currently running a new 'awareness campaign' (who knew that?) to try and discourage people from using antibiotics when they don't need to, i.e for colds and things. They had a previous campaign featuring a little talking drug which unsurprisingly seems to have petered out. You can download the leaflet here, but I wouldn't get too excited. It very closely resembles old WW2 posters, the kind telling you to eat more carrots or put up blackout curtains.

The current campaign seems to involve brightly coloured posters with simple messages on the front such as "Unfortunately, no amount of antibiotics will get rid of your cold". Less...snappy than a little talking drug shouting 'don't wear me out!' but a lot more adult somehow.

The Health Protection Agency's website I am a lot less impressed with. It's very...orange. And doesn't actually have very much written about what is quite an important topic. It does have a 'recent updates' thingy but this is pretty much the entirety of what it says about antibiotic resistance:

"Antimicrobial resistance describes the ability of a micro-organism to resist the action of antimicrobial drugs. This is important as it can make the treatment of infections more difficult and increase hospital costs. Undertaking laboratory testing of organisms causing infections can play a role in deciding the most effective treatment options."

wtf is with that last sentence?

So, having taken a brief look at the competition (I have to go pour 72 plates now!) I think I'll concentrate mainly on mechanisms with my essay. How antibiotic resistance arises, with probably a brief once-over of why somewhere near the conclusion.

hehe I have an Epic experiment planned. Hence the 72 plates.