Out of curiosity, what if bacteria becomes resistant to antibiotics? Would it become a serious international problem? And how can we slow down this process (since bacteria evolves and will try to fight antibiotics) ? (cheers from a newbie in biology :D)
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There are multiple types and variations of antibiotics. It's almost a competition between finding new antibiotics and bacteria becoming resistant. Bacteria with resistance often pop up in high-usage areas, such as hospitals. Luckily these hospitals are often equipped well for isolation of the bacteria so that it doesn't spread. So it really depends on a lot of factors.
One of the best tools we have in combatting antimicrobial resistance is not, in fact, creating new antibiotics. But in better controlling and monitoring how we use the antibiotics we have, often called Antimicrobial Stewardship. If we limit the amount of exposure that bacteria have to antibiotics then there won't be a strong enough selective pressure for them to evolve the resistance we are all so afraid of!
We should always be doing that though. We should also always be developing new antibiotics.
There are already antibiotic resistant bacteria. Have you ever heard of MRSA? That is a bacteria (its actually a S. aureus bacterial strain, similar to what was used in the study this post is about) which is resistant to basically all of the antibiotics that we use (there are a few last ditch ones which may work). Well it is a problem already and there are a few working antibiotics left. How can we slow the process? We can't, but we can work to identify new antibiotics, or other ways to kill the bacteria (maybe something as crazy as nano-robots will be the solution far in the future!)
Many thanks to both of you for telling me this! The future looks grim with these super strong bacterias.. Let's hope there's going to be a breakthrough in the near future to make sure these bacterias won't spread around like wildfire.
Well there are breakthroughs... like the one this post is about!