You are sick; you visit the doctor and he prescribes you a medicine for 5 days, but by the third day you are all good and hence you stop your medication, cause your healthy again, well for some time but again when you take the same medication it doesn't work, why so?

This is because the bacteria gets resistant, yes it's smarter than you think. It adapts itself to tackle the attack of the antibiotic. And this is serious. Alexander Fleming and Howard Walter Florey sounded the first warning about antibiotic resistance when they accepted the 1945 Nobel Prize for the discovery of penicillin. Physicians and scientists have expanded and expounded the message ever since, but it has recently begun to resonate with the public

So what exactly causes antibiotic resistance? The more antibiotics are used, the more chances bacteria have to become resistant to them. Major causes of antibiotic resistance include: using antibiotics when they are not needed not taking antibiotics at the doses and time that a doctor prescribes — this allows time for the bacteria in your system to become resistant.

How do bacteria develop antibiotic resistance? Mutations, rare spontaneous changes of the bacteria's genetic material, are thought to occur in about one in one million to one in ten million cells. Different genetic mutations yield different types of resistance. Some mutations enable the bacteria to produce potent chemicals (enzymes) that inactivate antibiotics, while other mutations eliminate the cell target that the antibiotic attacks. Still others close up the entry ports that allow antibiotics into the cell, and others manufacture pumping mechanisms that export the antibiotic back outside so it never reaches its target. Bacteria can acquire antibiotic resistance genes from other bacteria in several ways. By undergoing a simple mating process called "conjugation," bacteria can transfer genetic material (found on plasmids and transposons) from one bacterium to another. Viruses are another mechanism for passing resistance traits between bacteria. The resistance traits from one bacterium are packaged into the head portion of the virus. The virus then injects the resistance traits into any new bacteria it attacks. Bacteria also have the ability to acquire naked, "free" DNA from their environment.

You can prevent antibiotic resistance by : understanding that most people don't need antibiotics for colds and flu because they are caused by viruses, telling your doctor you only want an antibiotic if it is really necessary, taking the right dose of your antibiotic at the right time, as prescribed by your doctor, taking your antibiotics for as long as your doctor tells you to, taking simple steps to avoid infections and prevent them from spreading.

“The resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.” Now we know not only does Arnold Schwarzenegger believe this but so do bacteria's.

Mural Quadros

S.Y.B. Pharm

Tags: MET Institute of Pharmacy