What do antibiotics do exactly and why do people grow resistant to them?
In: Biology
Antibiotics are basically just poison for bacteria. Different antibiotics work differently, some just prevent reproduction, others kill them directly.
The thing is that they don’t always kill all of the bacteria. Some will only meet a minor dose, or have a random mutation that makes them more resistent.
Statistically the surviving bacteria are more resistent, because those die last. And then they can pass on that feature to their “offspring”. I.E. the 0.1% survivors become a more resistant strain when they multiply again.
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