What is antibiotic resistance?

Antibiotic resistance is the ability of bacteria to survive exposure to antibiotics.

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Describe in detail how antibiotic resistance arises.

  1. A population of bacteria infect somebody, and that person takes antibiotics to kill the bacteria.
  2. Some bacteria have (or get) a random mutation that makes them less susceptible to the antibiotic than others (or completely resistant).
  3. The antibiotics kill all the bacteria except those that are resistant.
  4. The resistant strains of bacteria survive and now have more resources to grow and multiply. 
  5. More mutations may arise, leading to greater resistance. There is now a strain of bacteria that can't be killed by antibiotics, which we call 'antibiotic-resistant bacteria'.

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Give 3 reasons for the recent rise and spread of antibiotic resistance.

  1. Some doctors prescribe antibiotics inappropriately, such as for non-serious or viral infections.


  1. Some patients don't complete their courses of antibiotics - so some bacteria survive, mutate, and develop antibiotic resistance.


  1. The agriculture industry gives huge amounts of antibiotics to farm animals to help them grow more quickly.

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Why is the spread of antibiotic resistance a problem?

If more bacteria are resistant to antibiotics, we won't be able to treat those infections. This means more people will die of bacterial infections.

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What is MRSA?

MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. 


It is a very dangerous strain of bacteria because it is resistant to most antibiotics. It is common in hospitals.

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