How do bacteria develop antibiotic resistance?

So when we give an antibiotic (a drug that kills bacteria) it will kill all of the bacteria that are sensitive to it, if it's taken correctly. A few bacteria may have an adaptation allowing them to resist and therefore survive the antibiotic but the body can deal with these as there's so few bacteria left. If someone doesn't finish their course of antibiotics, more bacteria are left and they multiply, including the ones with the mutation allowing them to be resistant to the antibiotic, and because there are plenty left due to the person not taking all of their antibiotics, the body can't always destroy the remaining bacteria. This means that the infection comes back, but this time it won't respond to the first antibiotic that was given because the surviving population has become resistant.

Answered by Charlotte N. Biology tutor

2783 Views

See similar Biology GCSE tutors

Related Biology GCSE answers

All answers ▸

How are plant leaves adapted for photosynthesis?


Describe the key features of an exchange surface


Why do energy and biomass decrease at successive stages of the foodchain?


Each skin cell in a mouse has 40 chromosomes. How many chromosomes were present in each cell after dividing four times during cell culture?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact usWhatsapp logoMessage us on Whatsapptelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo
Cookie Preferences