who agrees with me that an incomplete course of antibiotics leads to bacterial resistance?

Question

I am from the university of Edinburgh and am trying to convince the department of health [ british government] , specialist adivisory committe on antimicrobial resistance and the royal pharmaceutical society who dont agree with my views even though my professors at univeristy now agree with me. i have sent a scientific paper/abstract to them inorder to provide evidence

Answer 1

Nope, natural selection/evolution leads to bacterial resistance to antibiotics. No antibiotic is perfect. If we wipe some out, there would still be some left.

Answer 2

Overprescription of anitbiotics leads to bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Doctors know they are not supposed to do this. There are two key factors here which I have found out by asking the doctors themselves. The first is why would a doctor knowingly prescribe antibiotics to a patient that has a cold, flu or any other relatively low virulent virus? The answer I got was to prevent secondary infection. The next thing, which was kind of surprising at first was that if you know the antibiotics won't help them get over the cold, why prescribe them? The answer was because they are compelled to do so by their patients.

After I got these answers I realized that we are in big trouble because if doctors are overprescribing these anitbiotics for financial gain, we are really going to be in trouble with some strong bacteria.

People taking antibiotics when they don't need them is the problem at hand here. In a sense when people don't finish their antibiotic course they just have a chance of the infection coming back, not really increasing the bacteria's resistance to it. We increase bacterial resistance when we take them and we don't have a bad bacterial infection. We always have bacteria in our bodies and if we take these all the time, it will make further generations resistant to those antibiotics.

If people have a cold they need to rest and stop asking doctors for these drugs, it is also our responsiblity to be aware of these things.

Answer 3

I belive that the entire scientific comunity agrees with you on that. Which is presicely the reason why doctors instruct patients to complete the treatment.
Bacteria become naturaly resistent to antibiotics due to mutation. They also have a mechanizm for transfering DNA from one microb to another - congjation. However, an incomplete course of anitbiotics creates an enviorment where bacteria which have some resistance can thrive. The non resistant ones die, the resistant ones survive and start growing again (a full course of treatment would kill bacteria that have some resistance. Completely resistant starins would not respond to antibiotics they're resistant to at all). Misuse of antibitics is speeding evolution as it were.

Answer 4

I'm with you there. And so is anyone else with a brain who has read into the topic. I sympathise with your problem, I was giving a seminar on antibiotic resistance for my honours project & one of the professors kept asking me what the big problem with antibiotic resistance is at the end. He knew why but he was just being a smart *** trying to stump me!
All I can suggest is that you find as many papers as possible that have done studies on how incomplete antibiotic courses can lead to resistance. You also might want to throw in a couple of papers on growth-promotant antibiotics too if it fits. It's where farmers add sub-therapeautic doses to animal feed to keep them healthy & grow better but studies have shown this is a very good way of selecting for resistance. I'll give you a couple of references.
Good luck!

Answer 5

The full completion of antibiotics doesn't necessarily mean the total elimination of bacteria during an infection. Mutations in bacterial DNA are a naturally ocurring phenomenon and totally random. Certain mutations will render the antibiotics prescribed useless against the mutant strain,therefore no matter whether the patient finishes the course or not there will still be at least one bacterial cell remaining and bacterial replication times mean this will quickly increase in numbers.Obviously completing a antibiotic course will reduce the chances of the normal strain remaining in the body,howver due to the random process of DNA mutation in bacteria,there will always be a small chance of the bacteria,in its mutant form,remaining

Answer 6

Very much so!! I appropriate use and incomplete courses allow for the survival of bacteria which have a higher level of resistance to the current antibiotics used. These then multiply leading to infections which are far more difficult to treat.
However, it is not purely a human problem. some resistant bacteria have arisen due to the use of low dose antibacterials as growth promoters in farming and, if the resulting meat is not properly cooked, major outbreaks of food poisoning can occur.

Answer 7

Yes, it does lead to resistance.

I used to create resistant bacterias for the use in research.
By having several resistant bacterias to test unknown antimicrobial agents on, helps narrow down the possible results.
Like; say I have an unknown antimicrobial agent that tests positive on a vancomycin resistant bacteria. It makes the likelihood that the unknown is probably vancomycin, so extensive and expensive testing can be avoided.

The method I used for developing these bugs was to over several months slowly increasing the levels of the antimicrobial agent I am looking to develop a resistance to.
But the true test of creating an antimicrobial resistant strain was if the organism retained it's resistance over several generations and in the absence of the antimicrobial.
The simple answer is yes, it can become resistant if a set dose is not maintained over a period of time.

Answer 8

i do and at the same time beleive that complete courses of antibiotics also eventually lead to bacterial resistance
because of natural slection
anitbiotics kill almost all bacteria
an incomplete course will leave behind many that will develop or eveolve to resist antibiotics
a complete course will leave behind a minute ammount that will also evolve

we also evolve to resist the bacteria so its an unending cycle

Answer 9

Of course it does, I work with MRSA, it's a nightmare, makes the job so difficult, and all because antibiotics are either not used properly of or because people don't finish the course.

Staph infections are bad enough, but when they're resistant to methacillin it is a big job. And expensive.

Answer 10

Technically, it is natural selection that leads to antibiotic resistance, but incomplete courses and overprescribing of antibiotics certainly encourages and hastens the process.