History Fact Finder | Medicine and Disease - Why Are New Antibiotics Constantly Being Developed?

Why are new antibiotics constantly being developed?

New antibiotics (substances that kill bacteria, that is, germs) are constantly being developed for good reason: After being used for decades (and misused or overused), some antibiotics are no longer effective against certain microbes (germs). In order to sustain the effectiveness of antibiotics, doctors should prescribe them only when they are necessary, not when patients demand them to treat viral infections (since antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses). It is also important that a person taking antibiotics complete the entire dosage, even if he or she already feels better, because any bacteria not yet killed by the antibiotic may survive to withstand the antibiotic later as a drug-resistant bacteria. Scientists also believe that by feeding antibiotics to animals that are used for food, we may be creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria. By the 1990s,...

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