Antibiotic Resistant and Diagnostic Techniques Flashcards
what is the definition of antibiotics?
-drugs designed to kill bacteria
what are the 2 ways that antibiotics usually kill bacteria?
-disrupt cell wall formation by stopping the enzyme that is involved in this process, causes cell lysis as the bacterial cell cannot resist the change is osmotic pressure
-inhibit metabolic processes like protein synthesis
what does antibiotic resistance mean?
-when bacteria are resistant to one or more antibiotics and are no longer affected by them
what occurs in the bacterial cells which makes antibiotics no longer effective to them?
-mutations in the bacterial genome leads to metabolic changes which results in antibiotics being no longer effective
why can a large population of bacteria become antibiotic resistant very quickly?
-bacteria produce very rapidly by binary fission which means if one bacterium is resistant a large population become resistant very quickly
what does the term antiobiotic winter mean?
-some antibiotic resistant bacteria are resistant to many types of antibiotics which poses the threat that some could become resistant to all antibiotics
the number of deaths in recent years from MRSA has decreased (bacteria that is resistant to a lot of antibiotics) why is this?
-not due to the amount of antibiotic resistance decreasing but it is due to better hygiene practice in hospitals, more effective isolation and new targeted drug programmes
what are the benefits to society and economy of discovering new antibiotics?
-more effective treatment
-less treatment costs
-less time off work
where is one of the new places that scientists are investigating for new antibiotics?
-in the soil
-where some types of microbes naturally produce antimicrobial substances
what are some of the factors that affect how quickly a disease spreads?
-how easily it is spread
-how likely someone will fall ill to it if infected
-whether there is a vaccination for that disease
-whether bacterial resistance has occurred
what is the definition of an epidemic?
-a disease that spreads through a small region usually one country which affects a high amount of the population
what is the definition of a pandemic?
-diseases affecting many thousands of people or several countries at the same time
what are most major epidemics and pandemics caused by?
-viruses
what are the 3 reasons why viruses are more likely to cause epidemics and pandemics?
-they are very small and prone to mutation
-many viruses are known as retroviruses with RNA which makes them less stable
-antibiotics are not effective against viruses
what are reservoir species?
-animal species that harbour viruses that subsequently cause diseases in humans
