How do antibiotics work and why are they becoming less effective?

Answer 1

Antibiotics kill bacteria. Due to overuse of antibiotics, bacteria are gaining resistance to antibiotics, making them less effective.

Answer 2

They are designed to kill bacteria (not viruses). Each antibiotic is designed to kill a certain type/types of bacteria.

Antibiotics are becoming less effective because sometimes the bacteria are not killed. They may instead mutate and become resistant to the antibiotic. Because there has been wild use of antibiotics it has given bacteria a chance to develop resistance to those antibiotics, which means that new antibiotics will need to be developed in order to kill bacteria which has, up until now, been effectively killed with the older medications already in existence.

If people don't take antibiotics properly (the right dose for the right amount of time) they can cause the bacteria to develop resistance as well.

For some reason, people often demand antibiotics from their doctors; and even though the doctor knows the people have a virus (which antibiotics don't do anything for) they will prescribe the antibiotic just because the people want to feel they're doing something for the virus. People who ask for antibiotics even if they're not called for and doctors who prescribe them even if they'll be of no use are responsible for today's problem with antibiotics.

Answer 3

Antibiotics are either bacteriostatic (stop bacterial growth) or bacteriocidal (kill bacteria). Bacteriostatic drugs include those that inhibit folate synthesis (e.g. sulfonamides).

They're becoming less effective for two reasons mainly:

1) excessive and inappropriate use, which contributes to resisitance

2) bacteria multiply very quickly, and genetic mutations during these processes produce species that are not/not as affected by the antibiotics we do have. This, combined with (1) leads to resistant species.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Different groups of antibiotics work in different ways. Some antibiotics inhibit the synthesis of the bacterial cell wall. Some prevent protein synthesis in the bacteria. Some inhibit DNA synthesis in the bacteria. Some have a detergent effect on bacterial cell membranes. And some have free radical like action in bacterial cells.

Some bacterial are naturally resistant to antibiotics such as penicillin. This is because they do not have penicillin binding proteins. In others, resistant is induced. This occurs due to a mutation in the bacterial DNA, transduction(whereby a virus known as a bacteriophage transfers DNA with antibiotic resistance encoded.), transformation(where the DNA is picked up from the environment) and conjugation (where DNA is transferred from bacteria to bacteria via a sex pilus).

Resistance occurs as a result of the overuse of and the inadequate use of antibiotics. The bacterial is pressured to survive and activates its antibiotic resistance genes. Therefore if you do not complete a given course of antibiotics, even if you recover, you do not kill all the bacteria and those that survive will activate their resistance mechanisms.

Answer 5

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
How do antibiotics work and why are they becoming less effective?

Answer 6

They either kill or slow down the growth of bacteria. They are becoming less effective because the bacteria is becoming "immune" to the antibiotics. It is import to finishing taking all of you antibiotics because the bacteria that are exposed to the antibiotics that do not die can build a resistance towards that certain drug.
Say you are sick and you don't finish all of the prescribed medicine (drug A). Then the bacteria in your body can now be immune to that drug. You get another person sick, now those bacteria are immune to drug A. They have to find another antibiotic to take to get rid of their disease, so they take drug B. They didn't complete their prescription now whoever gets that's persons bacteria cannot take drug A or B

Answer 7

Think about natural selection. If a certain random mutation occurs that makes the bacteria resistant to the antibiotic the antibiotic obviously will not kill it off. (for example theres is a mutated white rabbit and it survives in the snow and all the brown ones die off) Therefore, that germ breeds and breeds and voila! You have instant, deadly, antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Answer 8

People are using antibiotics anytime they get sick even if it does not affect it. Therefore the body builds up an immune to that antibiotic and eventually becomes ineffective and useless.

Answer 9

Overuse of antibiotics (and not finishing off the prescription because you feel better) are making a lot of bacteria resistant to them.

Answer 10

Forget anything you have ever been told about Diabetes.

And get this - it has nothing to do with insulin, exercise, diet or anything else you've heard in the past. It's all based on latest breakthrough research that Big Pharma is going Stir Crazy to hide from you.

Visit here : https://tr.im/qpOVM to find out what all the fuss is about.