Monday, April 9, 2018

Antibiotic resistant bacteria have special genes that can spread their resistance to other germs

Antibiotic resistance bacteria infects nearly 2 million Americans each year and 23,000 die from these bacteria. Many bacteria are becoming antibiotic resistant because when we use antibiotics, it kills nearly all of the bacteria, but not all of it. The bacteria that survive after antibiotic treatment have the most fit genes and therefore carry these genes generation after generation forcing many strains of bacteria to evolve. Even scarier, many anti-biotic resistance bacteria can give their resistance to other bacteria just by being around each other. The misuse and overuse of antibiotics has lead us to change the genes in many bacteria strains to be resistant to antibiotics. 

Doctor Anne Schuchat, CDC Principal Deputy Director, reported that in the United States in 2017, there was 221 cases of Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae. The CDC also reported that up to 50% of people infected with this bacteria will die. It is possible to slow down the spread of these strains of bacteria by using infection control measures when in high risk areas such as hospitals and health-care offices. Another way to minimize the amount of cases involving antibiotic resistant bacteria is to not over use antibiotics and only use as prescribed from your doctor. 



Additional Article: https://weather.com/health/news/2018-04-04-nightmare-bacteria-antibiotic-resistant-on-rise-cdcAdditional Information: https://www.cdc.gov/hai/organisms/cre/index.html

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