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’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.
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