How do bacteria become resistant to antibiotics?
What will be your reaction if someone tries to kill you? You will try various methods to protect yourself from the Assassin, right! You may wear iron shield, so that no gun or sharp object can harm you. Now think in broader sense, How human have able to survive in extreme weather conditions. Over the years human and other living beings develops such ability, ability of surviving, Adaptation. With the overuse of antibiotics, bacteria too have developed such power to cope up with antibiotics. They too have shown the ability to survive, by changing their genetic make up, so that they can resist the effect of antibiotics which is lethal for them. This is like competition, to be one among those successful living species is like continuous "tug of war", where one has to win or other has to lose. Human follies cannot be matched. They are blind folded till the time they find themselves on the verge of cataclysm. At that time they may not mind harming other beings. Antibiotic resistance resulted as we believed in medicine more than our inbuilt immunity. Of course they are life saving drugs but misuse and overuse of antibiotics/antimicrobials has put the mankind on the edge.
Now coming back to the question what are the ways by which bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics. Some Bacteria can neutralise the effect of Antibiotics and make them harmless. Some bacteria pump an antibiotic out of the cells before they destroy it. Some bacteria change their outer structure into a shield so that no antibiotic can injure them. Most of the times surviving bacteria becomes resistant to the antibiotic.
Next: Few Cases of Antibiotic Resistance in recent times
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