Multidrug Resistance

Then, to their horror, medical scientists learned that bacteria exchange genes among themselves. At first it was thought that only bacteria of the same type could exchange genes. But later the very same resistance genes were discovered in completely different types of bacteria. By means of such exchanges, bacteria of various types have accumulated resistance to many different commonly used drugs.

As if all of this were not enough, studies in the 1990's showed that some bacteria can become drug resistant on their own. Even in the presence of only one antibiotic, some kinds of bacteria develop resistance to multiple antibiotics, both natural and synthetic.

Next time: What Are Antimicrobials?