What happens if bacteria becomes resistant?

Question

I’ve heard many times that we shouldn’t use antibiotics when not necessary because it could lead to bacteria developing resistance towards the drugs.
Couldn’t we simply counter this resistance with another drug?

In: 2

Answer 1

There are issues with bacterial resistance that have been addressed by the other commenters, but there is another issue: companies are not developing new antibiotics. The fundamental issue is that any new antibiotics will be used sparingly and only when absolutely necessary. If they’re used too often, then bacteria will becomev resistant. This type of usage does not generate much income and the return on investment is almost never worth it.