How can biocide exposure lead to antibiotic resistance?
In laboratory experiments, bacteria exposed to biocides were found to develop antibiotic resistance in five different ways: • Cross-resistance: Some bacteria have genes that make them resistant to a biocide, and which also happen to make them resistant to one or more antibiotics. There are several classes of antibiotics and all antibiotics in the same class work in the same way. Therefore, bacteria that are resistant to an antibiotic are also resistant to all the antibiotics in the same class. Some bacteria are resistant to both antibiotics and biocides, for instance because they have developed a mechanism that “pumps out” such unwanted chemicals from within their cells. • Change in the physiological response: As a result of exposure to a biocide, some bacteria change the way they respond to it and that makes them less easily affected by either the biocide or antibiotics. • Co-resistance : Some resistance genes can be transferred from one bacterium to another whether or not it is relat
