• Antibiotics are medicines used to prevent and treat bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in response to the use of these medicines.
• Bacteria, not humans or animals, become antibiotic-resistant.
• These bacteria may infect humans and animals, and the infections they cause are harder to treat than those caused by non-resistant bacteria.
• Antibiotic resistance leads to higher medical costs, prolonged hospital stays, and increased mortality.
• Antibiotic resistance is a consequence of evolution via natural selection.
• Other factors contributing towards resistance include incorrect diagnosis, unnecessary prescriptions, improper use of antibiotics by patients, and the use of antibiotics as livestock food additives for growth promotion.

In news;

• The government has commissioned a study to assess the microbial diversity along the entire length of the Ganga.
• The study will undertake tests entire stretches of the 2,500 km Ganga river if it contain microbes that may promote “antibiotic resistance”.

The aims of the research project are:

1. To indicate the type of “contamination” (sewage and industrial) in the river and “threat to human health (antibiotic resistance surge)”,
2. To identify sources of Escherichia coli, a type of bacteria that lives in the gut of animals and humans.

• While largely harmless, some species have been linked to intestinal disease as well as aggravating antibiotic resistance.

Source:TH