How does drug resistance develop?
So then a different drug is tried, and will be able to wipe out these resistant bacteria-for now. Pretty soon, the bacteria will also develop resistance to that drug. Eventually, you end up with bacteria that are resistant to essentially every available drug- called “super-bugs”. The only treatment for an infection of these are last-line of defense antibiotics, which tend to carry a greater risk of side effects for the patient due to their strength. Even now, many of the final option antibiotics are ineffective. Through constant research and new antibiotics we can buy more time to treat these super-bugs. Also, by reducing commerical uses of antibiotics, we can give bacteria fewer chances to develop resistance, which will hopefully translate to a longer period of effectiveness for conventional drugs.
