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Pages:
1 page/≈275 words
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4 Sources
Level:
APA
Subject:
Literature & Language
Type:
Essay
Language:
English (U.S.)
Document:
MS Word
Date:
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Topic:

Side Effects, & What Makes This Drug A Breakthrough In Therapeutics? (Essay Sample)

Instructions:

Paper assignment
Length: APA Format, 4 pages, double-spaced typed, with one-inch margins, NTR 12-point type.
Citations required, reference page required ( not counted as a page for count ).
Bibliography: - Minimum 2 articles from health or medical journals published in last 4yrs.
- Minimum 2 internet resources with full electronic citations ( e.g. a legitimate site to use for FDA. http://www.fda.gov/
choose one of the following three topics:
1 Treatment of drug resistant infections ( e.g. FED, Resistant TB, MRSA, VRSA )
2 New drug on the market ( breakthrough ) check with me PRIOR to starting paper. e.g. Breo, Ellipta, Daliresp, Striverdi Respimat, etc.
Include: Category, Description, Method of action, Interactions Indication, Contraindications, Dosages, Side Effects, & what makes this drug a breakthrough in therapeutics. Include any controversies in its use.
3 Antiviral medications including vaccines for flu.
e.g. also mention controversies, etc.
Pages: 4 ( 1200 words)+ Bib.
Sources: 4 min.
Style: APA

source..
Content:

Drug Resistant Infections
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Introduction
Even with increased research on the best medical practices to deal with the increasing and complicated illnesses, there are still difficulties in treating or preventing some illnesses. A good example is drug resistant tuberculosis (TB). According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012), “Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is TB disease caused by M. tuberculosis organisms that are resistant to at least one first-line anti-TB drug. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) is resistant to more than one anti-TB drug and at least isoniazid (INH) and rifampin (RIF)”. As a result, curing and treating drug-resistant TB is a complicated process. It is also notable that inappropriate management of the disease has life-threatening effects. Drug-resistant TB has very high mortality rates. Nevertheless, it can easily be treated using the right combination of the existing anti-tuberculosis drugs.
Drug-resistance of a disease is confirmed through drug-susceptibility testing. Nonetheless, the testing might take weeks and thus treatment should start with empirical treatment regimen with consultation and the advice of an expert immediately after suspicion of drug-resistant TB. In order to ensure adherence, directly observed therapy should be used in the treatment process of drug-resistant TB. As noted by WHO (2015), drug-resistant TB is a key public health issue that poses a great threat to the efforts made in TB care. Drug resistance of the illness is a result of improper antibiotic use during chemotherapy for patients with drug-susceptible TB. This improper antibiotic use results from several factors that need to be handled to ensure effective treatment of drug-resistant TB. Some of the major factors are failure on the side of the patients to complete the prescribed dose/ treatment regimen and administration of wrong treatment regimens.
Special Concerns with Drug-Resistant TB
There are special issues that need to be considered when handling patients with drug-resistant TB. These are categories of different patients. A good example is people infected with HIV. It is notable that the treatment process for drug-resistant TB is the same for HIV-infected persons and for persons without TB. However, the specialist managing drug-resistant TB for HIV-infected persons needs expertise. This is because the healthcare providers need to monitor the interactions of the used antiretroviral drugs. They should understand that RIF cannot be used with some antiretroviral drugs. This means that rifabutin can be used instead of RIF because it has lesser adverse drug interactions (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006). This means that the specialist managing an HIV-patient with drug-resistant TB needs to consider the fact that the patient is on antiretroviral drugs and thus prescribe antibiotics that would not lead to unbearable drug interactions.
Another patient category of consideration is that of children. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012), “treatment for children who have TB disease after exposure to a drug-resistant case should be guided by the source-case susceptibility results”. However, not all the times the source is known. In the time in which the source is unknown but the surrounding circumstances show an increased drug resistance risk, children require a ‘standard four-drug initial-phase regimen’ treatment until the time when the susceptibility pattern becomes known. In the time of INH resistance, ethambutol can be safely used at the daily rate of 15-20mg/kg. Amikacin, streptomycin, and kanamycin can be considered for the fourth drug choice. Even though long-term fluoroquinolones use in children has not been approved, it is supported by experts to be effective when treating children diagnosed with Multidrug-resistant TB. However, this treatment should only be considered with consultation from a pediatric specialist in TB treatment.
Another special category to consider is that of pregnant women. It is notable that most drugs that can be used by women to treat certain illnesses are dangerous to the fetus. This is the case when managing drug-resistant TB in pregnant women. Since drug-resistant TB cannot be treated using first-line drugs, it requires second-line drugs. However, most of these second-line drugs are harmful to the fetus. Drug-resistant TB in pregnant women thus requires consultation with an expert so that the prescribed drugs do not harm the unborn baby. Even though Pyrazinamide has proven to be effective in treatment of drug-resistant TB, it cannot be used for pregnant women because of the adverse effects it has on the fetus. Pregnant women should be provided with counseling services regarding the risks to the fetus on the drugs that are considered effective in treatment of drug-resistant TB (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012).
Effective Treatment
Before the most effective treatment for drug-resistant TB patients is considered, the categories discussed above should be considered. This is because the effects these drugs might have on children, pregnant women, and HIV-infected persons under ARVs are adverse and thus should be prevented. Patients exposed to INH-resistant and RIF-susceptible TB and also suspected to have latent TB infection should be prescribed on a daily rifampin for 4 months. If rifampin is not safe or effective, rifabutin should be used (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012).
For the patients diagnosed with drug-resistant TB that is resistant to both RIF and INH, the physician should consider alternative regimens. The considered alternative regimens should include two drugs that the TB strain is susceptible. An effective regimen in this case should have a daily dose of fluoroquinolone with the first choice as a high-dose of levofloxacin. The drug-resistant TB patients who are not immunosuppressed can be observed without any treatment of treatment for six months. This is different for patients suspected to have MDR LTBI since they should be monitored for two years irrespective of the used treatment regimen (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012).
In normal cases, drug-resistant TB is treated using oral drugs as the first-line drugs. ...
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