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Antibiotics: an ongoing war (part 7)
The most common answer is the development of new antibiotics. However, this strategy has important defects:
- The time required for the development of a new antibiotic is often longer than the time taken by the bacterial species to develop resistance;
- Evolution will always win. Despite how powerful a new antibiotic can be, sooner or later there will be at least one bacterium in the world that will be somehow resistant to it. The cell will then replicate, creating a new infection that will take over. This process happens due to tiny mutations to the genome of the bacterium. Those mutations are harmless and irrelevant if taken individually; however, they gradually accumulate and spread across the entire genome, altering the characteristics of the cell and thus hindering its growth or helping it survive in the environment.
So, are we hopeless?
No, we hope not. There are some interesting options we would like to talk about. This article series about basic notions was fundamental to creating the scientific background necessary to deeply understand of one of the main problems of our century.
We genuinely hope that this series was interesting, engaging, and why not even a little useful for a better awareness of personal health.
Stay tuned for the upcoming articles!