BIO220H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 21: Public Health Surveillance, Drug Resistance, Sexually Transmitted Infection

• School: UTSG
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIO220H1
• Professor: John Stinchcombe

Document Summary

Reading article 21: bbc news analysis: antibiotic apocalypse (james. Antibiotics kill bacteria: but when find ways of killing them, they find ways of surviving, need new drugs, bacteria find new ways to survive. If keep having drugs then resistance not a problem: but we haven"t had a new class of antibiotics since 1980. Antibiotics very important: treat dangerous diseases like tb, surgery that involves cutting body open = risk of infection. Need antibiotics before and after: cancer treatment (chemotherapy + radiotherapy) damage immune. Some bacteria resistant to some drugs and not others = multi-drug resistant strains. But also some cases of pan-drug resistant strains that no antibiotics work on. Emerged in india where had poor sanitation and antibiotic use. Sexually transmitted diseases also gaining resistance: gonorrhoea. Still have problems where doctors give patients antibiotics for viral infections (like common cold) and antibiotics don"t even help: europe banned use of antibiotics to boost growth of livestock.