Antibiotic resistance

• Antibiotics


  A group of drugs that can kill bacteria
• Antibiotics


  • Penicillin
• Penicillin was the first antibiotic to be discovered almost 100 years ago
• At first, penicillin was able to kill loads of different types of bacteria
• We've been using penicillin for so long


  Some types of bacteria have now become resistant to it
• How antibiotic resistance happens

  1. Bacteria develop random mutations in their DNA

  2. Mutations can change their characteristics

  3. Occasionally, these changes result in the bacteria being less affected by the antibiotic

  4. Resistant bacteria survive

  5. Resistant bacteria replicate quickly

  6. Resistant bacteria form a new colony
• Antibiotic resistant strain


  New type of bacteria that has the gene for antibiotic resistance
• Antibiotics aren't effective anymore

  You're still infected and can pass on the antibiotic resistant bacteria to other people
• Bacteria becoming resistant to multiple antibiotics

  1. Bacteria develop resistance to one antibiotic

  2. If a different antibiotic is used, some bacteria may develop resistance to that as well

  3. This process can happen again and again
• Superbugs


  Bacteria that are resistant to lots of different types of antibiotics
• Superbugs


  • MRSA
• It's actually super uncommon for a bacteria to develop full resistance, and even when they do, it's often only partial resistance
• By completing the full course of antibiotics, we can generally still kill all of the bacteria
• We use around 100,000 tons of antibiotics each year
• Over two-thirds of that 100,000 tons is given to animals by farmers to prevent illness and make them grow faster
• This is basically a breeding ground for antibiotic resistance
• Scientists are trying to develop new antibiotics that work against resistant strains, but it's proving difficult and slow