As most of us probably know
bacteria are becoming resistant to our common antibiotics. This is in large
part due to the overprescription of antibiotics and patients not completing the
dosage. The bacteria that survive then become resistant to that given
antibiotic and a stronger one is then required. This vicious cycle continues
until antibiotics are no longer effective against the strain of bacteria. Carbapenem,
which is one of the strongest antibiotics available today, is even becoming
ineffective against bacteria. This strain of carbapenem-resistant
enterobacteriaceae is
extremely dangerous and 50% of patients die from it. Two genes are primarily
responsible for this, KPC, and NDM-1. Researchers of this article suggest that
it is going to get easier and easier for these bacteria to pick up a gene that
is carbapenem resistant. As time goes there is more and more of a chance for
one of these superbugs to be passed on to a human.
I believe that this article is of great importance for everyone in the
scientific community. It would be a very scary world if all of
our antibiotics stopped working. I think it would be very interesting
if geneticists could find a way to prevent the spread of the KPC and NDM-1
mutations from being passed into bacteria. Maybe as technology increases we can
find more measures to prevent antibiotic resistance form spreading.
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