Anabiotic resistance

• Antibiotic resistance is a problem because some bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics, meaning that the antibiotics no longer kill them.
• Antibiotics are a group of drugs that can kill bacteria, with penicillin being the first one to be discovered almost 100 years ago.
• Penicillin was able to kill a variety of different types of bacteria at first, but some types have now become resistant to it due to overuse.
• Antibiotic resistance happens when bacteria develop random mutations in their DNA which change their characteristics and make them less affected by the antibiotic.
• Bacteria can replicate quickly and, without other bacteria to compete with, resistant bacteria can form a new colony of its own, which all have the gene for antibiotic resistance, and are referred to as antibiotic resistant strains.
• If antibiotic resistant bacteria are passed on to other people, they won't be effectively treated with the same antibiotic, and may need a different one.
• Very occasionally, some bacteria may develop resistance to the different type of antibiotic as well, creating a new type of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
• Bacteria can develop resistance to two or more types of antibiotics, a process that can happen again and again until the bacteria become resistant to lots of different types of antibiotics, these bacteria are known as superbugs.
• An example of a superbug is MRSA, which is resistant to a whole bunch of antibiotics and is often found in hospitals, where it can sometimes be fatal.
• Despite what we've said, it's actually uncommon for a bacteria to develop resistance and even when they do it's often only partial resistance, meaning that by completing the course of antibiotics, we can generally still kill all of the bacteria.
• The problem is that we use so many antibiotics that resistance is bound to rise, with an estimated 100,000 tons of antibiotics used each year.
• Two thirds of that 100,000 tons of antibiotics are given to animals, farmers put antibiotics in the food of healthy animals to prevent them from getting ill in the first place and to make them grow faster, which is a breeding ground for antibiotic resistance.
• Scientists are trying to fix the problem by developing new antibiotics that work against these resistant strains, but it's proving difficult and slow.