Preview

Antibiotic resistance in bacteria

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
348 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Antibiotic resistance in bacteria
Biology Research Task- Lucy Kerslake

What causes antibiotic resistance?

Antibiotic resistance occurs when an antibiotic is no longer effective against a particular bacteria, making that organism resistant to the effects of the antibiotic. Bacteria become resistant due to selective pressure. Those organisms which resist the antibiotic, and do not die from it 's effects have a greater chance of survival within the host, therefore allowing them to reproduce and spread it 's resistance to other bacteria. while the ones susceptible to the antibiotics die. This can be caused by unnecessary use of antibiotics (treating viral infections, overuse of antibiotics, using without a prescription).

Bacteria can become resistant in three ways. They may have a natural immunity, but they may also have a gene mutation, or acquire resistance from another bacterium. Resistance can be acquired by the transferal of genetic material from one bacterium to another through DNA loops called plasmids. This resistance spreads through generations of bacteria, from passing the resistance genes from parent to it 's offspring, or by sharing genetic information between bacteria of the same generation. Resistant bacteria can also be spread from host to host, through being airborne or waterborne (coughing, spitting, contact with unclean body or hands etc).

Preventing Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance can be treated and further prevented by these measures: - Minimise unnecessary or overprescription of antibiotics (Taking without a prescription, use of antibiotics for viral infections etc). This reduces the risk of overexposure to bacteria that may become resistant. - Complete the entire course of medication, not just until symptoms die down. This ensures that any surviving bacteria not killed by uncompleted antibiotics courses do not develop resistance to that medication. - Ensure good hygiene and proper control and prevention of infection (washing hands, covering



Bibliography: http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Antibiotic_resistant_bacteria http://www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAweb&HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1195733831049 http://www.tufts.edu/med/apua/about_issue/about_antibioticres.shtml

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    This bacterium is resistant to medicines called methicillin-type antibiotics, which means that it isn't killed by these antibiotics and can be very difficult to treat. It's sometimes called a superbug.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ap Biology Unit 9 Essay

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Antibiotic resistance occurs when an antibiotic can no longer control or stop bacterial growth. The danger this antibiotic resistance poses, is that resistant bacteria can quickly spread between people, causing strains of infectious disease that are very difficult to cure and more expensive to…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nmd-1 Research Paper

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Low dose antibiotics provide a selective evoltuionary pressure to develop antiobitc resistance. Those bacterium that have developed resistance genes (e.g. efflux genes or proteans that break down antiotic molecules) will survive and reporduce, increasing the presense of resistant bacrteruia.…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Antibiotic resistance occurs when there are a lot of germs and a few drug resistant germs.…

    • 1390 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Antibiotics are chemicals that we use to treat infection, often bacterial infections. They work by either killing the bacteria or by stopping them dividing and growing. Some work by interfering with enzymes that are essential in the replication of genetic material (either DNA or RNA) in the bacterial cells or in protein synthesis. Some work just by blocking the sites where enzymes usually join to the substrate, so they can’t join on and catalyse the reaction.…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The antibiotics are taken to prevent those serious health problems that can lead to damages of the human organs in the…

    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    diease and infection

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Bacteria can get into your body in many ways; the first one is Droplet infection so when you cough, sneeze or talk you expel tiny droplets full of pathogens from your breathing system and then other people breathe that in. The second is Direct Contact which means that some diseases are spread by direct contact of the skin. The third is through contaminated food and drink so when you eat raw or undercooked food or you drink water containing sewage can spread disease for example diarrhoea and food poisoning (salmonella). The fourth is being infected by bacteria through any animal or insect bite for example malaria is spread by a mosquito that contains the malaria virus biting you.…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Intro to Biology

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to withstand the effects of an antibiotic. It is a specific type of drug resistance. Antibiotic resistance evolves naturally via natural selection through random mutation, but it could also be engineered by applying an evolutionary stress on a population. Antibiotic resistance is a consequence of evolution via natural selection. The antibiotic action is an environmental pressure; those bacteria which have a mutation allowing them to survive will live on to reproduce. They will then pass this trait to their offspring, which will be a fully resistant generation. Several studies have…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    • Antibiotics kill bacteria by either preventing bacteria from making cell walls, preventing bacteria from making complete proteins, or damaging the plasma membrane.…

    • 374 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The capacity for quick change among disease-causing microbes is what makes them so dangerous to large numbers of people and so difficult and expensive to treat. They leap from wildlife or domestic animals into humans, adapting to new circumstances as they go. Their inherent variability allows them to find new ways of evading and defeating human immune systems. By natural selection they acquire resistance to drugs that should kill them. They evolve. There's no better or more immediate evidence supporting the Darwinian theory than this process of forced transformation among our inimical germs. Take the common bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, which lurks in hospitals and causes serious infections, especially among surgery patients. Penicillin, becoming available in 1943, proved almost miraculously effective in fighting staphylococcus infections. Its deployment marked a new phase in the old war between humans and disease microbes, a phase in which humans invent new killer drugs and microbes find new ways to be unkillable. The supreme potency of penicillin didn't last long. The first resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus were reported in 1947. A newer staph-killing drug, methicillin, came into use during the 1960s, but methicillin-resistant strains appeared soon, and by the 1980s those strains were widespread. Vancomycin became the next great weapon against staph, and the first vancomycin-resistant strain emerged in 2002. These antibioticresistant strains represent an evolutionary series, not much different in principle from the fossil series tracing horse evolution from Hyracotherium to Equus. They make evolution a very practical problem by adding expense, as well as misery and danger, to the challenge of coping with staph. The…

    • 4616 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Antibiotic or drug resistance is the result of bacteria changing in ways that reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of drugs or other agents used to treat infections. With antibiotic resistance, bacteria are now able to survive the use of these drugs meant to kill or weaken them. This is an example of acquired resistance. Bacteria may also have intrinsic or natural resistance.…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Antibiotics:- antibiotics are medication which destroy or slow down the growth of bacteria, they are used to treat infections which are caused by bacteria. Most of the time the body’s immune system can fight off bacteria but in cases in which the body cannot antibiotics are used to destroy them. Antibiotics are either given orally, applied to the skin in ointment form or injected, this all depends on the type of infection the body is currently trying to fight off, for example skin infections are treated with ointment, oral antibiotics are used to fight of moderate infections and injective antibiotics are most commonly used in the hospitals and are reserved for serious infections.…

    • 3026 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Changing Pathogens

    • 231 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Antibiotic resistance is a type of drug resistance where a microorganism is able to survive exposure to an antibiotic.…

    • 231 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Biology Stuff

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Bacteria experience mutations (the reproduce very frequently so it is not rare.) These mutations can mean that they are no longer affected by a certain antibiotic, this makes it easier for them to survive. If bacteria evolve to be resistant to drugs we are treating them with then they are difficult to control; sometimes they can be stopped using a different antibiotic, but some are becoming resistant to all the drugs that we know of...…

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evolutionary Medicine

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages

    With antibiotic resistance and susceptibility, the E. Coli bacteria become resistant or susceptible due to the evolutionary principles of genetic drift, mutation, and natural selection. The spread of Tuberculosis involved a great deal of genetic drift because of all the different populations that had spread the infection around the world. Lastly, the development of cancer involves mutations, which is one of the most important things to understand about how cancer develops. It is so important to understand that evolutionary biology plays a role in so many different aspects of the medical field, and in order to help find cures for different illnesses or disorders it is important to look at the evolutionary side of things before jumping to any…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays