Over the past several decades there has been increasing evidence about disease-causing organisms becoming resistant to antibiotics/antifungal/antiviral medicines. There is appropriate concern when a medicine cannot be found that is effective in stopping these dangerous organisms or disease causing pathogens (bad guys). In the last 100 years we have become accustomed to taking curative antibiotics for whatever ails us and no wonder, antibiotics changed our world.
“Anti” “biotics” means “against life” and our current antibiotics inhibit or kill microbes that cause disease and do not kill the other living cells of our bodies! The first recorded use of antimicrobial-like substances were by early Egyptians, Greeks and Chinese who used natural products to treat wounds and infections. This use occurred even before we understood the causes of infections. Today scientists are still discovering in plants new compounds that have medical benefits. Early in the 1900’s infectious diseases killed 1 out of 50 children before the age of 5 years and maternal deaths were at similar rate. The average life span was around 50 years. This has improved dramatically.
Bacteria, helpful or infectious, emerged on earth approximately 2-2.5 billion years ago. Humans emerged around 2 million years ago. Obviously the bacteria from millions of years ago evolved as it interacted with the environment and resistance to harm allowed the “fittest bacteria to survive”. The development and widespread use of antibiotics by humans have added another pressure for bacterial survival. Factors such as overuse, misuse, inappropriate use, subtherapeutic dosing, and widespread use of antibiotics in livestock have accelerate the evolution of drug resistant bacteria.
Pathogens (bad guys) can develop resistance to drugs through chromosomal mutations. The mutations that don’t allow the drug to harm them so they can reproduce and spread resistance. Alexander Fleming, penicillin discoverer, also noted that if penicillin was used for too short of time or too small a dose that resistance developed. Bacteria, good and bad guys, have the ability to exchange genes not only within their own species but also between different bacterial species. Through these gene swapping processes a bacterium can become resistant to multiple antibiotics.
Drs. Sophie Katz & Ritu Banerjee in healthychildren.org suggest some steps that parents can take to keep their family safe for drug resistant microbes. They suggest that whenever possible choose meat and dairy products that are “antibiotic-free”, eat at restaurants that use antibiotic free food, partner with your child’s doctor to limit the antibiotics they take. Remember viral infections like the flu, colds and most sore throats won’t go away with antibiotics. Remember to practice safety rules in food preparation as animals that have received antibiotics are more likely to have drug resistant bacteria.
Remember to wash your hands.
We all need antibiotics. Limiting antibiotic use in farming and food production is a key part of keeping antibiotics effective. All of us need to work together with our doctors, our farmers, our families and our government to keep our children safe.
By Sally Robinson, MD
Keeping Kids Healthy
University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB)
Published October 2025