Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior.
The advent of antibiotics turned many once life-threatening diseases into mild illnesses. Unfortunately, bacteria reproduce rapidly and adapt new gene sequences easily, making them well equipped to evolve resistance to lifesaving medicines, especially when antibiotics are overused or misused.
The species is opportunistic, infecting people who have weakened immune systems or easy routes of entry for bacteria, such as catheters or surgical wounds. Acinetobacter strains have evolved different types of resistance. Of particular concern are third-generation cephalosporin-resistant Enterobacterales, which resist a group of antimicrobial compounds that had been a good option for treating bacteria with evolved resistance. The loss of third-generation cephalosporins to treat Enterobacterales infections also removes a tool for the treatment of brain infections caused by these germs, as the antibiotics can cross the blood-brain barrier.
Typhoid fever was once easily treated with the antibiotics chloramphenicol, ampicillin and cotrimoxazole, according to the Coalition Against Typhoid. Unfortunately, in the 1970s, a multidrug-resistant strain emerged that could stand up against these first-line antibiotics. In response, doctors turned to fluoroquinolones, another class of antibiotics.
Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faeciumEnterococci bacteria are usually harmless in the human body, living in places such as the gut and the urinary tract. Sometimes, though, they grow out of whack or in the wrong place and cause infections. One of the most common friend-turned-enemy of the Enterococcus genus is Enterococcus faecium, which usually lives in the intestines but can sometimes infect the blood, the lining of the heart or the urinary tract, according to a 2018 review.
Fluoroquinolone-resistant non-typhoidal Salmonella Not all Salmonella strains cause typhoid. Many of the 2,500 strains out there result in brief gastrointestinal symptoms, such as diarrhea. This is the kind of Salmonella that people sometimes get from undercooked or contaminated food.
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