As many of us have seen lately on the news, there are new strains of common bacteria that are antibiotic resistant. There are many speculation of why this is happening. What had been said on the media and even on Doctor Oz Show is the misuse of antibiotic as well as the doctors prescribing antibiotics when not really necessary. While this contribute to the problem, there are other reasons too. This include use of antibacterial soap, and the use of antibiotic on the food we eat.
Although it is normal for bacteria to adapt and become antibiotic resistance, there where always new more potent antibiotics that will kill those bacteria and we will always be one step ahead. However, in the past decade there was no new antibiotic development and antibiotic resistant bacteria has been on the rise.
While part of the problem is that pharmaceutical companies haven't come with more potent antibiotic to combat the new bacteria that are resistant to current antibiotic, in my opinion the main reason of the new crisis is the use of antibiotic in the food/meat we eat.
The reason for this is because when food companies give antibiotic to livestock, to supposedly kill bacteria such as e.coli, which can be true at the beginning, however, they keep giving those antibiotics to them for a long time, hence, creating antibiotic resistant bacteria because they evolve to resist the antibiotic, and when we eat the meat, we might inadvertly take the antibiotic resistant bacteria, if the antibiotic resistant bacteria makes us sick, when we are treated with antibiotic they won't work. Also, there are some bacteria that can spread from human to human in several ways.
Therefore, I believe the best practice is to buy organic grass-fed meat that is not treated with antibiotics. Doing so will reduce the amount of antibiotic resistant bacteria, and it would be great that food companies would start good practices and feed livestock regular food without the antibiotics.
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