Public Health Concerns

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Evolution of Microbes

A major concern of health professionals today is the ease and speed at which some microbes are evolving and therefore gaining resistance to antibiotics. Only a few decades ago, antibiotics were considered to be wonder drugs because they worked so well to cure deadly diseases. Ironically, though, many antibiotics have become less effective, precisely because they have worked so well and have been used so often. Evolutionary theory predicted that bacterial resistance would happen. Given time, heredity, and variation, any living organisms (including bacteria) will evolve when a selective pressure (like an antibiotic) is introduced. Researchers have concluded that as many as two dozen types of bacteria have evolved resistance to most, if not all, antibiotics that exist.

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