Will we ever iradicate hospital superbugs?
Why does MRSA exist? It’s all about survival of the fittest – the basic principle of evolution, and bacteria have been around a lot longer than us, so they’re pretty good at it. There are countless different strains of a single type of bacteria, and each has subtle natural genetic mutations which make it different from the other. In addition, bacterial genes are constantly mutating. Some strains’ genetic makeup will give them a slight advantage when it comes to fighting off antibiotic attack. So when weaker strains encounter antibiotics, they die, while these naturally resistant strains may prove harder to kill. This means that next time you encounter a Staph infection, it is more likely to be one which has survived an antibiotic encounter, i.e. a resistant one. The advice from doctors who give you antibiotics is always to finish the entire course – advice which many of us ignore. When you don’t finish the course, there’s a chance that you’ll kill most of the bugs, but not all of them
