When Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin, the first true antibiotic, it changed the entire medical world. Until then, people would often die from infections that we now consider to be easily treatable. Antibiotics fight and kill bacteria within our bodies. However, a big problem is developing, as bacteria are now becoming resistant to the power of antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance occurs when the DNA bacteria adapts in order to be able to survive the effects of the drug. In recent years, antibiotics have been over-prescribed and wrongly used to treat illnesses that don’t require it, and it's because of this overexposure that bacteria naturally changes its own makeup. Thus, certain bacteria become impervious to whichever antibiotic it has been overexposed to. This is a significant problem in the medical world, as bacterial infections are now more dangerous than they were just a few decades ago. It should be noted that antibiotics are still generally very effective; resistance is still a minority occurrence. But the potential long term effect, experts fear, is that recovery time and even death rates for seemingly innocuous infections will increase. They maintain that there are two courses of action that must be taken now: To stop needlessly prescribing antibiotics, which increases resistance; and work towards better understanding the exact ways in which bacteria become so resilient. If they can get to the bottom of that question, we will be much better prepared to create more effective treatments.
