In my last post i have mentioned about how a coincident discovery became so commercialised that it has now become part of our daily living. Antibiotics are overused or misused for the cause that needs no antibiotical treatment. Today we will discuss about the microbes that are present everywhere and popular among masses for their notorious activities i.e, spreading infection.
Comparison between bacteria and virus.
Bacteria and virus both have potency of spreading infection. Bacteria are single-celled organisms found inside and outside of our bodies. However, many bacteria are actually helpful for e.g, bacteria lives in our gut. Disease causing bacteria are contagious and harmful. Examples of such are streptococcus, mycobacterium, clostridium etc. Virus on contrary, are microbes that are smaller than bacteria and cannot survive outside the host cell.
Antibiotic or Antimicrobial?
Antibiotic is the term which is used for the drug that kills bacterial growth specifically. It has no effect on disease caused by virus. Term Antimicrobial is an umbrella term for all the microbes including virus, bacteria, fungi and parasites. It is wise to use Antimicrobial resistance for addressing Public Health emergency caused by various microbes, not bacteria in particular.
Why are Antibiotic becoming resistant to antibiotics.
- Overuse or misuse of antibiotics
- Using antibiotics even for viral diseases like common flu
- Development of antibiotic resistant bacteria which nullifies the effect of antibiotic
- Change in genetic make up of disease causing bacteria
- Resistant bacteria outnumbering the sensitive bacteria
Every time a person takes antibiotic, the sensitive bacteria are killed but there is a population of resistant bacteria that are left to grow and proliferate. The repeated use of Antibiotic make these resistant bacteria more immune to the drug and hence they increase in number.
Next post on : How do bacteria become resistant to antibiotics?
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