Antibiotic Resistance
What is it, and why should you care
Antibiotic resistance is something that appears to confuse many people, not just laypeople but also medical specialists.
A common phrase I’ve heard bandy about is, “I’m resistant to those antibiotics.”
Well, no, no, you’re not. Your body should have little to no response to the antibiotic directly. The hope is that it will only harm the bacteria causing you to have an infection.
You are not resistant to the antibiotic, the bacteria are.
At issue is the rapid pace with which bacteria evolve and spread their DNA.
Take E. coli., one of the most common bacteria to cause infections in humans. It can replicate every 20 minutes, meaning that 1 E.coli can now be 2. Each doubling is a new generation. And each generation is the potential for genetic change. That is, mutations that may or may not be useful. All it would take is one bacteria to produce a way to fight the antibiotics, and it would become dominant.
But that’s not all! Bacteria can share their DNA!
E.coli, for example, can directly share fragmented DNA known as plasmids. These are small DNA chains not part of the main DNA of the bacteria. Plasmids can encode specific defenses against several antibiotics and then spread to other bacteria. This bacteria doesn’t even need to be in the same species!
These evolutionary traits have kept bacteria alive for the eons that they’ve been on this planet, but that also leaves us at a disadvantage. For example, depending on where you live, E. coli can be up to 92% resistant to ciprofloxacin! A common antibiotic used for urinary tract infections and some forms of diarrhea!
“Well fine!” You think, “I’ll just use some other type of antibiotic.”
I have seen E.coli infections that were resistant to nearly everything. Ciprofloxacin, Co-Amoxiclav, Tazosin, Meropenem, etc. We were able to get the bug under control with Colistin, but what do we use when that comes back? These are some of the most potent antibiotics we have, and these bacteria just laugh in the face of it!
This is where we are at the moment, and there’s very little help from the pharmaceutical companies.
Remember, while I don’t believe that the loss of antibiotics will end society, there’s no doubt that antibiotics save lives and improve the quality of life for a lot of people. If you think long-covid is hard, you have no idea how hard it can be to have a chronic lingering infection that is slowly eating you away.
No, we need new antibiotics, and I favor throwing money at these pharma companies to make them. Some agencies are trying to help, but we need more. So much more. We’ve become comfortable getting medications that help us get over these infections, and we’re about to lose that ability.
