Antibiotic Resistant BacteriaWhat doesn’t kill them makes them stronger

Before Antibiotics

Alexander Flemming Discovers penicillin in 1928

Miracle Cure

• The invention of early antibiotics, namely penicillin, provided a huge advance in the treatment of infectious diseases. Antibiotics have turned many would-be fatal conditions into manageable ailments. With this success has come an overreliance on antibiotics as a fix for every cough and sniffle. This opens a Pandora's box of medical pitfall

RESISTANCE IS NOTICED • As early as 1946, scientists (including A. Fleming) were warning of the possible dangers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria• A few bacteria in populations that have never been exposed to artificial antibiotics probably carry alleles that give resistance to antibiotics• Resistance alleles can also arise by mutation• Resistant bacteria can use a number of mechanisms to overcome antibiotics

One of the biggest problems with the overuse of antibiotics is an acquired resistance to the drug by the infecting bugs. Antibiotics act on bacteria which have the ability to adapt to a variety of situations and learn ways around the killing mechanisms of various antibiotics. If one of several types of bacteria is exposed to the same or similar antibiotics, these bugs can learn to outlive the effects of the drugs. The World Health Organization has stated that drug resistance is one of the major problems we face today [Source: WHO]. Some bacteria, like MRSA (methicillin resistant staph aureus) are referred to by the drug they can resist.

Mechanisms Of Resistance• Antibiotic use represents a strong selection pressure• If a population of bacteria with a few resistant individuals is exposed to a lethal antibiotic, the susceptible bacteria will die, but the resistant bacteria will survive• In an environment with a lot of antibiotic use, resistance alleles spread rapidly• The problem is compounded by horizontal gene transfer and by cross-resistance

Horizontal Transfer • Bacteria have the ability to acquire genes from

other bacterium without being its offspring. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?

feature=player_detailpage&v=eRvfhljxA4s

Selection Pressure

What Can We Do?• Many of the most widely used antimicrobial drugs are already

ineffective• Pharmaceutical companies cannot create new drugs fast enough to

treat drug resistant bacteria• Reduce inappropriate prescription of antibiotics• Reduce inappropriate prescription of antibiotics

• Increase public awareness that many diseases cannot be cured with antibiotics

• Reduce use of agricultural antibiotics• Increase the number of patients who finish their courses of antibiotics• Restrict the use of new antibiotics• Reduce use of agricultural antibiotics• Increase the number of patients who finish their courses of antibiotics• Restrict the use of new antibiotics• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=UZatOI

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