I chose to undertake a project based around the issue of antibiotics resistance. I came to this conclusion after much deliberation about which area of medicine I wanted to research, I originally looked at homeopathic methods before thinking about alternative medicines and the use of plants such as marijuana before settling on antibiotics. It then took me some time to decide what about antibiotics I wanted to look at, with some previous knowledge of the history of penicillin, I decided to look at the history and development of antibiotics before finding resistance and concluding that this would be the most interesting and useful topic to base my project on. This area of science is something I am very interested in and intend to look further into as I undertake a pharmacology degree.

Throughout this EPQ, my intention was to highlight the issue of antibiotic resistance and share my knowledge other members of the public and encourage them to do something to help.

I believe that I achieved this aim whilst developing my independent learning and research skills.

I read a variety of articles, books and webpages on the topic to expand the knowledge I already had of the topic.

I looked specifically at university level textbooks and institutionally run websites in order to gain an accurate understanding of the science behind antibiotic resistance.

I used official government and WHO reports as well as peer reviewed articles in my research, and systematically highlighted and made notes. Sorting the information by the subsection of my report they were relevant to.

I completed my report before the deadline as a result of a my improved time management skills, which allowed me to gain feedback from several different people giving me a lot of time to tweak and edit.

I was selective in my reading and made comprehensive notes from a wide range of sources although more could have been found relating to the global impact of and the response to antibiotic resistance.

I would finalise my topic sooner and allow myself more time for more in depth research. I would concentrate more on the 'how do we combat it' section, and read into government responses and global prevalence in more detail and depth.

An antibiotic is a medicine that inhibits the growth of or destroys microorganisms.

We've all taken them and all know the power they hold as, over the last 88 years, our medical knowledge and abilities have grown and advanced, leading to the eradication of some diseases, the ability to safely conduct complex operations and the increase of the average life expectancy of many western populations.

However, our use of antibiotics in this way does no follow the natural order of life and death as we are on average, adding 20 years to our lives through the use of antibiotcs. This has caused an imbalance in the natural world and those bacteria we are constantly destroying are adapting and evolving to bring order back.

Antibiotic resistance is the mechanism by which the bacteria are fighting back.

Many bacteria have natural resistance that stops certain classes of antibiotic from having any affect, while others experience a random mutation within their one chromosome that changes their genetic structure and permanently gives them resistance. As bacteria reproduce asexually they create identical daughter cells which passes this resistance on as a whole new -resistant- population is formed.

70% of the world's bacteria have now developed a resistance to antibiotics. The six ways we have undermined antibiotics are their use in animals, medicine and the environment, while global travel, medical tourism and the failure the develop new medicines are also factors.
Greece have the highest antibiotic consumption rate in Europe, with 31.5 million daily doses per 1000 inhabitants per day, while the Netherlands have a rate of only 11.4 million and this directly correlates to the levels of resistance in these countries.

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Because of this, there is a large amount of funding being invested in research to find some sort of solution to antimicrobial resistance. The coveted Longitude Prize is a £10 million fund to help solve the biggest problem of our time, applications are still currently open to help solve the problem of antibiotic resistance, specifically looking to "create a cheap, accurate, rapid and easy-to-use point of care test kit for bacterial infections."

As well as investing in research, the government have made PHE the authority who will drive forward the campaign in the UK. This is being done through campaigns to reduce the level of prescription and use of antibiotics across the country by raising public awareness in order to create a mindset similar to that in the Netherlands where some of the lowest levels of resistant bacterial populations are found.

One thing I would ask you to take away from my report if nothing else, is the antibiotic guardian pledging campaign. Set up by PHE, the organisation acts as in information hub and is somewhere members of the public are able to pledge to change one small thing about their attitude towards antibiotic resistance by promising not to go to the doctor when you have a cold or teaching your children how to properly wash their hands. It was intended to be a national campaign but the website has since been visited by people over 100 countries including the UK and people all over the world are getting involved in the fight.

If we do not work together as a global community to combat this issue, our health system WILL be reduced to what it was in the early 20th century and common colds and infections WILL become killers once more. So I ask you to go forth and tell everyone you know about the issue of antibiotic resistance, bore them with it, until they promise to pledge to help in the fight and join the 30,000 other people across the globe who have as well.