How do you determine if an antibiotic is effective at stopping the growth of bacteria?

Answer 1

• First, the lab tech needs to grow a culture of the bacteria on a medium (bacteria food) in a bunch of petri dishes. Each petri dish will contain millions of bacteria.
• Then, the tech puts a little of each antibiotic being tested on one of the bacteria samples. A different antibiotic is tested in each petri dish.
• She checks back later to see which antibiotic killed the most bacteria. She is looking for a bacteria-free area around where she put the drop of antibiotic.
• The technician writes a report for the doctor, to tell him which antibiotics worked the best.
• The doctor will check to see if you are allergic to an antibiotic before writing you a prescription. (You may want to remind him if you have any such Allergies.)
• This is called a sensitivity test. If you take one kind of antibiotic and it doesn't work, be sure to ask your doctor to do a sensitivity test before you try any more types of antibiotic. If you just keep taking different antibiotics, your bacteria may become resistant to antibiotics. You could spread the resistant bacteria to other people. So insist on getting the test.