antibiotic resistance and future medicines 3.1.8 - 3.1.9

• an antiviral drug is one that kills viruses
• antiviral drugs are necessary because antibiotics only kill bacteria and people can die of viruses
• antiviral drugs may damage human cells as well as the viruses
• many new antiviral drugs stop virus enzymes from working and since humans dont need viral enzymes, they dont cause damage to human cells
• in recent years, several types of bacteria have developed a resistance to antibiotics which means infections by these bacteria cannot be treated by antibiotics so they can be serious or even fatal
• examples of antibiotic resistant bacteria are MRSA and C. difficile
• antibiotic resistance is caused by natural selection and mutation
• a part of the cause is due to the missuse of antibiotics when people take them when they dont need it so more resistant bacteria is produced
• you must always finish your antibiotics so that the bacteria do not become resistant
• mutations to the pathogen can also make the disease worse and infect others who are more vulnerable
• an epidemic is a wide spread infectious disease in a community
• a pandemic is a widespread infectious disease worldwide
• pandemics are more likely to occur now than in the past because people are more connected across the world and it is harder to contain diseases
• new antibiotics may be produced from crocodile blood, fish slime and soil samples in the future
• the noni fruit has natural antibiotic features
• however developing new antibiotics as an expensive and slow process that is unlikely to keep up with antibiotic resistant strains