I. Antibiotics are among the most frequently used medications in the world today.
A. They can cure anything from your minor discomforts to a life-threatening disease.
B. However, if misused, antibiotics can cause many problems.
II. Antibiotics are so overused, that the human body is becoming resistant to its cures.
III. This morning I will show you that misusing antibiotics can be done without a person even realizing that they are doing it.
A. First, antibiotics are used to feed animals to help with faster growth.
B. Second, doctors are prescribing antibiotics when they don’t cure the disease the patient has.
C. Third, when a patient is prescribed an antibiotic, they may not continue taking the prescribed amount after the symptoms are gone.
(Transition: You may not know it, but you might be consuming antibiotics when you eat a hamburger.)
Body
1. Throughout the years, antibiotics have been used in an agricultural setting to feed the animals and promote growth.
A. An article dated January 28, 2008 entitled “Fight to Curtail Antibiotics in Animal Feed” by Sabin Russell in the San Francisco Chronicle, explains benefits and consequences of using antibiotics to feed these animals.
1. 70 percent of U.S. antibiotics are used in small doses in animal feed; not to treat disease but to promote the growth of the animals.
2. Antibiotics increase the speed of food-to-muscle conversion by 5 percent.
3. Antibiotics that are fed to cattle have been tied to the drug-resistances of salmonella which is found in humans.
B. In his 2008 article “Antibiotic Resistance” in the Genetics Encyclopedia, Paul K. Small cited that the use of antibiotics in animal feeding is associated with antibiotic- resistant strains of bacteria.
(Transition: However, there are other ways that humans can become resistant to antibiotics other than simply consuming the meat of animals who had previously consumed an antibiotic.)
II. Misuses of antibiotics have
Cited: "Facts About Antibiotic Resistance." U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 03 Mar 2008. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. 30 Sept 2008 <http://www.fda.gov>. "The New Superbugs." The Times of India 24 Sept 2008 25 Sept 2008 <www.timesofindia.indieatimes.com>. "The Overprescribing of Antibiotics." Medscape. 3 Oct 2008. <http://www.medscape.com>. Russell, Sabin. "Fight to curtail antibiotics in animal feed." SFGate. 28 Jan 2008. Chronical Medical. 25 Sept 2008 <http://www.sfgate.com>. Small, Paul K. "Antibiotic Resistance." Genetics Encyclopedia. 30 Sept 2008 <http://www.answers.com/topic/antibiotic-resistance>.