3 ms·
Yes and no. We do overuse (and mis-use) antibiotics, but as long as we use them at all, bacteria will have an evolutionary pressure to adapt to their presence.
by timr 13y ago
Yes and no. We do overuse (and mis-use) antibiotics, but as long as we use them at all, bacteria will have an evolutionary pressure to adapt to their presence. So while we can mitigate antibiotic resistance by reducing use, we'll only slow down the problem.
Antibiotics have changed the way we live, but the price of that change is that we have to invest in the arms race. We invest in all the other arms races, so why not this one?
- joe_the_user 13y ago"We do overuse (and mis-use) antibiotics, but as long as we use them at all, bacteria will have an evolutionary pressure to adapt to their presence." Not necessarily a decisive pressure however. For bacteria which primarily "prey" on human beings this would be true. For bacteria which are primarily endemic to the environment, the loss of fitness involved in antibiotic vulnerability is something of a drop in the bucket. Remember this resistance has a cost in physiological adaptation too. These bacteria, like Staph, that might be "happy" to subside to resisting the common chemicals in a barnyard - unless we human produce an environment where tolerating antibiotic gives the organism a natural bridge to spread through - gigantic hospitals with filled with humans pumped with antibiotics or huge feed lots filled with similarly pumped animals "come to mind".