Resistant bacteria

• Bacteria can reproduce every 30 minutes under ideal conditions
• Bacteria can evolve rapidly due to their fast reproduction rate
• Antibiotics were first used to treat bacterial diseases in the 1940s
• Antibiotics are widely used in medicine and farming to prevent bacterial diseases
• Certain strains of bacteria are now resistant to antibiotics
• Antibiotic resistant bacteria

  Bacteria that are no longer killed by antibiotics
• Antibiotic resistant bacteria

  • MRSA
• How antibiotic resistance happens

  1. Genetic variation due to mutations

  2. Antibiotic resistant bacteria survive

  3. Resistant strain reproduces without competition

  4. Resistant strain spreads
• Antibiotic resistant strains spread because people are not immune to them and there is no effective treatment
• Ways to reduce development of antibiotic resistant bacteria

  • Doctors should not prescribe antibiotics inappropriately
  • Patients should complete full course of antibiotics
  • Restrict use of antibiotics in farming
• Developing new antibiotics is a long and expensive process
• New antibiotic resistant bacteria emerge all the time, making it unlikely we can keep up