Before explaining my issue, I’d like to point out the fact that english is neither my native language nor is it the language of studies in my country. So I hope I’ll be making myself clear.
It’s always possible for the bacteria to develop resistance for a certain kind of antibiotic, so finishing your antibiotic or not seems irrelevant once the mutation appears because the new bacterial strain will have the possibility to multiply and so on …
so is the good use of antibiotics only slowing down the pace of the superbugs rise ?Thank you in advance.
In: 4
It kills weaker bug and superbigs survive, repeat this survival of the fittest dynamic and the result is that the “bug” has evolved to survive the antibiotics over fewer generations that it would have taken naturally. Simply put: It filters out all the bugs that don’t survive, leaving only the superbugs.
When people don’t finish their full prescription, often because they think they don’t need to because they feel better, it sometimes allows the last few bacteria to survive. But now, those bacteria have been exposed to the antibiotic and they mutate to protect themselves, allowing them to survive next time they see the same antibiotic.
It’s because there’s isn’t usually a single mutation that suddenly provides a bacteria with complete resistance to an antibiotic. It’s a series of mutations, each one increasing the resistance a little.
Finishing a full course of antibiotics will still kill off bacteria that have partial resistance. If you cut off the antibiotics early those are more likely to survive, reproduce and spread.
The more times this happens the more resistance the bacteria gains.
But yes, even proper use of antibiotics will eventually lead to antibiotic resistant superbugs. However proper use extends the timeframe significantly. And hopefully that lets us develop different antibiotics in the meantime.
All the bacteria in your body need to die for you to be healed. Taking antibiotics only kills a few with each dose you take. Say you have 100 bacteria in your body, and only one of them is a superbug that is very resistent to the antibiotic. Day 1 you kill 20 bacteria, the 20 weakest ones. Day 2 you kill 20 more, slightly less weak. Day 3 you kill 20 more, even less weak. Day 4 you kill another 20. By now you’ve killed 80/100 bacteria so you feel a bit better. If you skip the last dose, you still have 20 bacteria in your body, and among them the superbug which survived until now. It now has plenty of room to grow and make more superbugs, as it’s not competing with the 80 bacteria you killed anymore. So you’re very likely to get a second, much worse illness, because you now have an infection with a version of the bacteria that is more resistant. You couldn’t treat it with the same antibiotic since that superbug is resistent to that antibiotic.
if you walk the street and find a 50cm wall to hinder your way, you will stop at it and go another way.
if you find several youll start climbing them.
if the walls get higher, youll go around with a ladder.
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