Once bacteria have developed resistance to antibiotics, they can pass on their abilities to offspring and nearby cells. Certain practices encourage the proliferation of antibiotic resistant strains. Patients can add to this problem when they request antibiotics for viral infections, despite the fact that these drugs have no effect on viruses. Patient misuse of antibiotics is also a problem, as many patients stop taking their medication after their symptoms subside. This leaves residual populations of bacteria in the body, which, if they contain resistant strains, can lead to the selective proliferation of antibiotic resistance at a later point.
Doctors also share part of the blame.
In the old days, a patient would come up to the lab, get a culture, and grow it out with a sensitivity test, remembered Paramedic Mike Coons. The culture sensitivity test, in which disks of different antibiotics are placed on the bacterial culture, is used to determine which antibiotics a particular infection is susceptible to. The patient s doctor would then write a prescription for the antibiotic to which the bacteria showed the most sensitivity. Today, however, doctors in hospitals often do not have the time to run sensitivity tests. Instead, broad-spectrum antibiotics are often prescribed to combat bacterial infections in urgent cases.