Continue on our One Health Campaign series, the third thing on "All you should know about antibiotics". We will tell you more on how antimicrobial resistance is developed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOcrNd5AZX4&t=678s

The development of antimicrobial resistance is a natural process. There are two major ways on how a bacteria resist to antimicrobial - intrinsic resistance and acquired resistance. Intrinsic resistance can be due to some antimicrobial mechanism on the bacterial cell wall, or the bacteria itself has the function to produce certain substances which can render the antimicrobial inactive.

Acquired resistance is complicated. However we would like to point out how mis-use of antibiotic can be a major cause. When we are taking antibiotic but at a sub opitmal dose which maybe a result of missing dose or shortened duration, and if this is happening frequently, bacteria may always get hurt but not killed. As a result the bacteria will repair themselves where this may trigger a mutaion of their DNA so to produce antimicrobial resistance ability to make them survive through the situation.

Some bacteria may have innate antimicrobial properties but not expressed. However when we frequently take antibiotic and at a sub-optimal dose this will create a pressue on them making their silent antimicrobial property active.

Free DNA (plasmid) encoding antimicrobial property can transfer between bacteria to to 'spread' the antimicrobial properties among them. These are some major cause on the development of antimicrobial resistance.

These situation can happen not only in human world be also farm animal, pets, agriculture. Farm animals receive hugh amount of antibiotic in the past as a growth promotor and for disease prevention. Antimicrobial resistance can develope in the same way as described above and the resistant bacteria can transmit to people through food, which is now one of the major concern under One Health concept.

Proper use of antimicrobial in human, farming and veterinary medicine is thus important to slow down the antimicrobial problem.