Antibiotics and Bacterial Infections

Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them. Antibiotic resistance can naturally evolve via natural selection through random mutation, but it could also be engineered by applying an evolutionary stress on a population. Overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics, such as second- and third-generation cephalosporin, can develop resistance very easily.  Bacteria have an ability to neutralize an antibiotic by changing it in a way that makes it harmless others have learned how to pump an antibiotic back outside of the bacteria. Some bacteria can change their outer structure so that the antibiotic cannot attach itself to the bacteria’s body.