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We Are What We Eat: True for Bacteria Too

- Riti Mann; Leigh G. Monahan; Elizabeth J. Harry; Amy L. Bottomley

The development of antibiotics is one of the biggest successes of modern medicine. Antibiotics have saved millions of lives since doctors started using them in the 1940s. Antibiotics have helped humans to have much better lives by successfully treating almost all types of bacterial infections. But like us, bacteria are smart, too! Since the 1940s, bacteria have been developing tactics to overcome the effects of antibiotics, and today we are seeing more and more bacteria that can no longer be killed by antibiotics at all. These have become known as antibiotic-resistant bacteria or "superbugs," and they are a serious threat to the health of people all over the world. If we do not have antibiotics to stop bacterial infections, even something as simple as a small infected cut on the finger could become life-threatening. Therefore, new weapons, in the form of new antibiotics, are needed to treat the infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

License information: nan
MPAA: G
Go to source: https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00054

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