Resistance Flashcards
What are antibiotics?
Are medications that destroy or slow down the growth of bacteria. They are used to treat bacterial infections. They are produced by fungi or bacterial cells.
What are the 2 types of antibiotics?
- Bacterial.
- Bacteriostatic.
What are bacterial antibiotics?
Kill the cells.
What are bacteriostatic antibiotics?
Inhibit growth.
What are the 4 ways antibiotics work?
- Rupture the cell membrane.
- Stop the synthesis of a new cell wall during cell division.
- Inhibit enzymes essential for transcription.
- Inhibit enzymes essential for metabolism.
What is antibiotic resistance?
Is where an organism’s DNA allows it to tolerate a certain level of antibiotics.
What is immunity?
Is when an organism’s immune system is stimulated by the presence of a foreign pathogen.
How did antibiotic resistance come about?
Affected people were treated with antibiotics. This kills off antibiotic-sensitive strains of the bacterium. Some bacteria acquired resistance to the antibiotic by a mutation, causing the next generation to be resistant.
What is conjugation?
In this process, the plasmid containing the trait is passed from one bacteria to another through a structure called a pilli.
What are the 5 reasons for the widespread use of antibiotics?
- Increasing availability of antibiotics since the 1950s.
- Uncontrolled sales in many countries without the need for a prescription.
- Incorrect diagnoses and unnecessary prescriptions.
- Improper use by patients by not finishing the course.
- The use of antibiotics as livestock food additives for growth promotion.
Outline the 4 steps on how immunisations work.
- Introduce a harmless part of the pathogen.
- Induces an immune response in the body leading to the production of lymphocytes.
- Lymphocytes destroy the invading pathogen.
- Some lymphocytes remain in the body to speed up the response if infected with the sam pathogen again.
