Question

Recently the CDC declared that Antibiotic Resistance in bacteria is projected to soon be the most significant grave threat to public health. Explain why we have reached this situation in public health. Note two classes of antibiotics and how they work and a specific mechanism of how that antibiotic becomes resistant. Finally, what are the broader implications of a world, in the near future, where we do not have access to antibiotics. Answer in full detail.

Answer 1

• So many bacteria became resistant to antibiotics as their genetic mechanism developed in such a way that they can now cope up the antibiotics and can resist the damage due to antibiotics.
• The bacteria developed in such a way that their cells envelopes genetically modified to check the entry of antibiotics into their cellular cytoplasm.
• Certain bacteria eventhough if any antibiotic enters their cellular system can make it harmless by throwing them out of their cells or can degrade them.
• If one bacterium has developed a signal mechanism to develop certain proteins to target antibiotics, these proteins could be passed on to the neighboring bacteria through exogenous genes.
• This type of mechanism of transfer of genes from one bacterium to other bacteria is called as horizontal transfer.
• This results in antimicrobial property of that particular group of bacteria.
• The antimicrobial property resulted in multi drug resistant bacteria.