Drug resistance

Background of Topic

Drug resistance is a growing problem because it is the ability of microbes, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, or fungi, to grow even in the presence of a drug that should kill it or limit its growth. These drug resistant microorganisms continue to spread and multiply even upon drug treatment. All it takes is one resistant one that could create a complete new drug resistant species by multiplying continuously. “Superbugs” is the name given to these microorganisms that have become resistant to antimicrobials. There are very dangerous and deadly superbugs such as the Tuberculosis bacteria that have caused many deaths, especially in third world countries.

United Nations InvolvementThe United Nation knows this is a huge problem and has been working on handling it. The trouble is that there is such a broad issue because of all the different types of drug resistant bacteria. There has been a lot of research launched into this topic such as the study in 2004 about pharmaceutical companies’ antibiotics where it was discovered that only a couple out of many drugs were actually antibiotics. Since then there has been greater inspection by the United States Food and Drug Administration to really see which drugs were actually able to perform the duties needed. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also been working on ways to combat these resistant microorganisms. They call it the “policy packet” and it involves the education of how to not spread infections as well.

Bloc Positions• Western Bloc: Many of the countries in the western bloc are better off economically, ehich transfers to well-being as well. Usually these countries do not have too much of a problem with superbugs.• Asian Bloc: There is a wide variety of nations in the Asian bloc that range in economic stand points. Many of these countries are third world and do not have much protection from these unstoppable and dangerous microorganisms.• African Bloc: Africa is very susceptible to all kinds of infections because the hygiene there is very hard to control. • Latin America Bloc: A lot of countries in Latin America are third world and also susceptible to many drug resistant superbugs.Questions to Consider1. What bloc is your country in and how may this affect it as a whole?2. What are the past epidemics of your country? Has this become a superbug in the past recent years?

3. What is your country’s medical stance and doctor to patient ratio? Are the doctors well qualified?

Bibliographyhttp://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/antimicrobialResistance/Understanding/Pages/drugResistanceDefinition.aspxhttp://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/89/5/11-088435/en/index.html