Potential End of The Antibiotic Era

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.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150325210513.htm