What is Antibiotic Resistance?
According to medicine.net antibiotic resistance is the ability of bacteria and other microorganisms to resist the effects of an antibiotic to which they were once sensitive. antibiotic resistance is a major concern of overuse of antibiotics. Also known as drug resistance. Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in some ways that can reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of drugs, chemicals, or other things designed to cure or prevent diseases. The bacteria survives and continues to multiply causing more harm. There are many causes of antimicrobial drug resistance like selective pressure, mutation, gene transfer, and more. Drug resistance means any drug that is an antimicrobial that has been compromised or has reduced or no activity when used to treat certain microbes (Bacteria, fungi, parasites, viruses). Antibacterial resistance is important because the past two decades have seen resurgence of infectious diseases and the appearance of new ones. The most commonly antimicrobial resistance refers to acquired resistance, which can either be a novel mutation or a transfer of genes causing resistance. This is bad because this suggest that soon antibiotics could become ineffective.
Representation of how antibiotic resistance evolves via natural selection. The top section portrays a population of bacteria before exposure to an antibiotic. The middle section portrays the population directly after exposure, the phase which selection took place. The third section portrays the distribution of resistance in a new generation of bacteria. The legend shows the resistance levels of individuals.