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What else can I help you with?
What are antibiotics and how are they use?
Antibiotics are substances that kill bacteria. They are not able to neutralise viruses. Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, so misusing them for non-bacterial infections could have serious consequences rendering the antibiotic ineffective.
How could you explain the increase of infection in hospitals by antibiotic-resistance bacterial?
The increase in infections in hospitals due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria is primarily caused by overuse and misuse of antibiotics. This leads to the development of resistant strains that are difficult to treat with conventional antibiotics. In hospitals, where patients with weakened immune systems are concentrated, these resistant bacteria can spread easily, leading to outbreaks of infections that are challenging to control.
Why won't som antibiotics cure bacterial?
One possible reason could be that the bacteria has some how become resistant to the antibiotics used to fight it. If you take a certain antibiotic often, your body will start to become immune to its effects. Then when that antibiotic is needed to fight a bacteria, your body no longer registers the antibiotics as a way of killing the bacteria.
What is superbug?
a superbug is a micro-organism that is resistant to most anti-biotics. the superbugs in recent history are imune to all anti-biotics,except one. it is the gene of the3 superbug that is resistant to the antibiotics. a tiny change in one gene or a mutation can turn a bacterial cell into a superbug. one single superbug on its own will not do much damage but if it reproduces rapidly then it could produce a large population of bacteria which are all resistant to antibiotics. superbugs can have an increased risk of being resistant to antibiotics when: A) people take antibiotics they do not really need B) people do not finish their full course of antibiotics
Why are some bacteria resistant to antibiotic drugs?
Bacteria can become resistant by many means. Antibiotics can affect several different parts of a bacterium such as cell wall synthesis (the penicillins affect this) or protein synthesis and several others. If for example an antibiotic affects cell wall synthesis by inhibiting an enzyme then if the bacteria mutates to overproduce that enzyme then it becomes resistant to that antibiotic at therapeutic concentrations. Or the bacteria could mutate so it does not need that exact enzyme any more and the antibiotic becomes useless. Some of the dangerous pathogens like methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have acquired resistance to several antibiotics by selective mutation (otherwise known as evolution). Some bacteria are not so good at mutating or are less dangerous as pathogens so they cannot acquire resistance at all or as quickly.Other bacteria can produce spores which are very tough capsules which contain all the genes of a bacterial species but are not viable cells, the spores are highly resistant to antibiotics because they are very thick and do not carry out normal cellular functions so they are not affected by antibiotics. Anthrax and Clostridium dificille can form spores.Some bacteria like Listeria and in some cases Staphylococcus aureus can get inside the human cell like a virus and become resistant to the immune system and also to drugs because it is harder for drugs to get inside a human cell.
Why is irresponsible use of antibiotics could have serious long-term consequences?
Yes. The risk is in the creation resistant strains of the affected bacteria. If someone does not use the antibiotics apropriately the bacteria will develope immunity to the antibiotic. Then subsequent people infected with the strain will not be cured by the previous antibiotic. Eventually strains can evolve into one that is resistant to most antibiotic therapy, making treatment very difficult, more invasive, and more dangerous to the patient Didn't I say that in the answer you deleted???
How is mutation diagnosed?
In Microbiology, we usually identify mutated bacteria/mutants/mutated DNA by using a number of methods, such as: 1.) Positive selection - For example, we want to identify a mutant bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, such as say, penicillin, a beta-lactam antibiotic. We plate the bacteria in a medium that contains penicillin, if the bacteria is from a pure culture known to be penicillin-sensitive then we could expect that there will be no growth, if there is growth however, we could say that bacteria is mutated and most likely contains the enzyme beta-lactamase. 2.)Negative selection - This process selects a cell that cannot perform a certain function, we ofen times use the technique of replica plating. For example, we plate a pure culture in a medium with histidine, all of these will form colonies. Next is, we transfer the colonies using a sterile velvet into two or more plates, one contains histidine, the other does not. If a colony that is present in the histidine medium is absent in the other medium, we can assume that bacteria has lost its ability to synthesize it's own histidine.
Explain why the evolution of resistance to antibiotics in bacteria is an example of directional natural selection?
All bacteria, as are all organisms, are variants and some of these variants are resistant to antibiotics. So, a population of bacteria, in their immediate environment, are subjected to an antibiotic and most succumb. So, the resistant, survive the onslaught ( are naturally selected ) and reproduce progeny that are also resistant to the antibiotic. So, allele frequency shifts and evolution occurs die to the adaptive change conferred on the progeny population by natural selection.
How does the misuse of antibiotics affect the evolution of disease-causing bacteria?
The antibiotics will kill some bacteria but not all and the ones that are resistant to the antibiotic will survive and reproduce passing on their resistance. One of the major influences in the development of so called 'super bugs' is the use of low level antibiotics as livestock growth promoters. This practice has been banned in Europe and Scandinavia but is still permitted in American farming due to the influence of the farming lobby. A microbiology professor I spoke to described this as a dangerously trivial use of antibiotics that could seriously threaten the effectiveness of modern medicine.
What resistant of bacteria are produce by gram positive bacilli of the most dangerous disease causing bacteria?
These bacteria did not become antibiotic resistant until we overused antibiotics. This is one of my pet peeves. We selected for these 'bad bugs' in this way. The CDC says: Many public health organizations have described the rapid emergence of resistant bacteria as a “crisis” or “nightmare scenario” that could have “catastrophic consequences. We are just about back to where we were before the discovery of penicillin. And I remember those days.Among gram-positive pathogens, a global pandemic of resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and Enterococcus species currently are the biggest threat.Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and the global spread of drug resistance among common respiratory pathogens, including Streptococcus penumoniae and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is epidemic. And just what will we do with TB that doesn't respond to antibiotics.
What resistant forms of bacteria are produced by gram positive bacilli of most dangerous diseases causing bacteria?
These bacteria did not become antibiotic resistant until we overused antibiotics. This is one of my pet peeves. We selected for these 'bad bugs' in this way. The CDC says: Many public health organizations have described the rapid emergence of resistant bacteria as a “crisis” or “nightmare scenario” that could have “catastrophic consequences. We are just about back to where we were before the discovery of penicillin. And I remember those days.Among gram-positive pathogens, a global pandemic of resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and Enterococcus species currently are the biggest threat.Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and the global spread of drug resistance among common respiratory pathogens, including Streptococcus penumoniae and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is epidemic. And just what will we do with TB that doesn't respond to antibiotics.
What could be the consequences of frequent use of antibiotics over a long period time?
Taking antibiotics for colds and other viral illnesses not only won't work, but it also has a dangerous side effect: over time, this practice helps create bacteria that have become more of a challenge to kill. Frequent and inappropriate use of antibiotics selects for strains of bacteria that can resist treatment. This is called bacterial resistance. These resistant bacteria require higher doses of medicine or stronger antibiotics to treat. Doctors have even found bacteria that are resistant to some of the most powerful antibiotics available today. Antibiotic resistance is a widespread problem, and one that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls "one of the world's most pressing public health problems." Bacteria that were once highly responsive to antibiotics have become increasingly resistant. Among those that are becoming harder to treat are pneumococcal infections (which cause pneumonia, ear infections, sinus infections, and meningitis), skin infections, and tuberculosis. Source: http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/general/sick/antibiotic_overuse.html
