Resistance

You may have heard that the usage of hand sanitizer can lead to a resistance to harmful bacteria or viruses? Well, the statement above is a misconception, hand sanitizers do not form a resistance to harmful bacteria or viruses.

But, the case of antibiotics resistance developing is real and poses a major threat. Although antibiotics are widely available and you may think that if one antibiotic is unavailable another one can takes its place.  Unfortunately, certain infections can only be treated with one type of antibiotic. From many studies, 25,000 deaths per year are caused by antibiotics resistance. Such bacteria and viruses include: MRSA, VRE, food borne bacteria, CRE, MDR and many more!

A medical chief from England stated that if we humans do not act now; suppose in 20 years you have a minor surgery done. Instead of recovering smoothly, an infection forms that cannot be treated and leads to death because of antibiotic given is no longer effective in the human body(antibiotic resistance).

Now, you are probably wondering how does an antibiotic resistance develop?
There are two main causes: Mutation or Gene transfer. Gene transfer is a lateral swapping of genes instead, vertically of passing of genes from a parent. Gene transfer is broken down into 3 parts: Transformation, transduction and conjugation( below illustrates gene transfer).
                                     
Once the resistance develops within the cell, the main mechanisms that occurs:
1) Enzymes degrade the antibiotics ( looses function)
2) Enzymes can change the role of the antibiotic ( looses function)
3) An efflux pump attaches to the cell and pumps out all the antibiotic in the cell
4) Entry portal for the antibiotics is decreased
                                              
Now, do you realize the major threats of antibiotic resistance?
Although the process seems complicated, there are certain approaches to prevent resistance that WE can follow now:
Do not abuse the usage of antibiotic when not needed and always follow doctors orders (the the length of time, dosage, etc). More ways of preventing antibiotic resistances.

Sources:
1) Payne, David, Michael Gwynn, David Pompliano, and David Holmes. "Drugs for Bad Bugs: Confronting the Challenges of Antibacterial Discovery." Nature. Nature Publishing Group, Jan. 2007. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.
2) Kelland, Kelly. "Antibiotic Resistance Poses 'Catastrophic Threat' To Medicine, Says Britain's Top Health Official." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 10 Mar. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.
3) Todar, Kenneth. "Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics." Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics. N.p., 2011. Web. 25 Mar. 2013