Pestilences in the 20th Century - Antibiotic Resistance

Many infectious diseases are becoming harder to cure because they have become resistant to antibiotics.  This is what happens:  When bacteria infect a person, they constantly multiply, passing on their genetic traits to their offspring.  With the production of each new bacterium, there is a chance  of a mutation-a slight copying error that will give the new bacterium a new trait. The probability that a bacterium will mutate in a way that  makes it resist an antibiotic is extremely small.  But bacteria produced by the billions, sometimes producing generations of offspring in an hour. Thus, the unlikely does happen-every once in a while, a bacterium occurs that  is difficult to kill with an antibiotic.

So when the infect person takes an antibiotic, the non-resistant bacteria are wiped out, and the person probably feels better. However, the resistant bacteria survive. But now they no longer must compete for nutrients and territory with fellow microbes.  They are free to reproduce unchecked.  Since a single bacterium can multiply over  16 million bacteria within a single day, it does not take long before the person again becomes ill.  Now, however, he or she is infected by a strain of bacteria resistant to the drug that was suppose to kill it. These bacteria can also infect other people and  in ti mutate to become resistant to other antibiotics.

States an editorial in the Journal of Archives of Internal Medicine:  "The rapid development of bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic resistance to our present theraputic armamentarium makes one wonder not if, but when we will loose this war against the microbial world." 

Next time: Pestilences in the 20th Century - Some New Infectious Diseases Since 1976

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