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re: OT Doctors- Why do we become immune to antibiotics?

Posted on 5/26/16 at 7:45 pm to
Posted by bbrownso
Member since Mar 2008
8985 posts
Posted on 5/26/16 at 7:45 pm to
Actually her E.Coli isn't resistant to all antibiotics, just the antibiotic of last resort, Colistin.

As for how bacteria gain immunity:
quote:

Bacteria develop antibiotic resistance in two ways. Many acquire mutations in their own genomes that allow them to withstand antibiotics, although that ability can't be shared with pathogens outside their own family.

They get infected with something called a plasmid, a small piece of DNA, carrying a gene for antibiotic resistance. That makes resistance genes more dangerous because plasmids can make copies of themselves and transfer the genes they carry to other bugs within the same family as well as jump to other families of bacteria, which can then "catch" the resistance directly without having to develop it through evolution.


And it appears that the reason that some E.Coli has gotten this resistance might be:
quote:

Colistin is widely used in Chinese livestock, and this use probably led bacteria to evolve and gain a resistance to the drug. The gene probably leaped from livestock to human microbes through food
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