antibiotics

• antibiotics:

  • medicines that kill bacterial pathogens without damaging body cells
  • can be taken as a pill, syrup or directly into the bloodstream
  • different antibiotics are effective against different types of bacteria
  • example: penicillin - discovered by alexander flemming
• antibiotic resistance:

  • mutations can occur during reproduction - certain bacteria are no longer being killed
  • when these bacteria are exposed to antibiotics, only the non resistant ones die
  • population of the resistant bacteria increases - reproduction
  • this means the antibiotics will no longer work
• prevent antibiotic resistance:

  • stop overusing antibiotics
  • finishing the course of antibiotics to kill all the bacteria