Antibiotic Resistance: Causes and Implications

Image credit: amr.gov.au

What is antibiotic resistance & why is it important?

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when germs (bacteria, virus, or fungus) that cause infections resist the effects of the medicines used to treat them. These resistant bacteria can spread and may infect people or animals. They are harder to treat than non-resistant bacteria. Why are antibiotics important? What is antibiotic resistance?

What is the difference between antibiotic resistance and antimicrobial resistance?

Resistance is a property of the microbe, not a person or other organism infected by a microbe. All types of microbes can develop drug resistance. Thus, there are antibiotic, antifungal, antiviral and antiparasitic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is a subset of antimicrobial resistance.

How does antibiotic resistance occur?

Resistance can appear spontaneously because of random mutations, but also arises through spreading of resistant genes through horizontal gene transfer. However, extended use of antibiotics appears to encourage selection for mutations which can render antibiotics ineffective.

What is antibiotic resistance?

antibiotic resistance, loss of susceptibility of bacteria to the killing (bacteriocidal) or growth-inhibiting (bacteriostatic) properties of an antibiotic agent. When a resistant strain of bacteria is the dominant strain in an infection, the infection may be untreatable and life-threatening.

How do bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics?

There are multiple mechanisms by which bacteria can develop resistance to antibiotics. Examples include the activation of drug efflux pumps that actively remove a drug from the cell, the inactivation of a drug by bacterial enzymes, the alteration of bacterial cell drug targets, and the inhibition of drug uptake into the cell.

What are some examples of antibiotic resistance?

Examples include the activation of drug efflux pumps that actively remove a drug from the cell, the inactivation of a drug by bacterial enzymes, the alteration of bacterial cell drug targets, and the inhibition of drug uptake into the cell. There are several genetic mechanisms by which resistance to antibiotics can develop in bacteria.

What Is Antibiotic Resistance

1. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance
2. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/21655-antibiotic-resistance
3. https://www.amr.gov.au/about-amr/what-amr
4. https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/about.html
5. https://www.britannica.com/science/antibiotic-resistance
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_resistance
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513277/

Antibiotic Resistance Information

1. https://www.emro.who.int/images/stories/drug-resistance/Antimicrobial-resistance-explained.pdf