

Klebsiella pneumoniae  (Source:











Source: International Business Times

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RE: Mother nature fights back
By geddarkstorm on 11/18/2011 1:20:35 PM , Rating: 2
Thankfully it isn't all bleak. We are always several steps ahead with our drug developments. And despite this article, there are more types of antibiotics than carbapenems or beta-lactams (penicillin family). Additionally, most types of antibiotic resistance (for instance, resistance against streptomycin), actually weaken the bacteria when in a non-antibiotic environment (streptomycin resistant bacteria have a much lower production speed of proteins than non, making them grow slower and compete less). So, out in nature, resistance is very low in the population--it's just in hospitals and cities where antibiotics are being misused everywhere that the frequency of resistance is being greatly increased due to the constant selective pressure we are imposing, without giving a breather for the non resistant bacteria to come back and take over the population.

In short, if we stop using a type of antibiotic for awhile, bacteria become resensitized to it. Now, this isn't always or completely true (I'm looking at you tuberculosis), but it does come to our aid.

None the less, if we didn't misuse antibiotics, we wouldn't be selecting for these superbugs (at least not at this rate) in the first place. We really need, as a world, to address this issue before we do start falling behind...


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