Evolution and Antibiotic Resistance

The antibiotic age was ushered in with the accidental discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) in 1928. Nevertheless, it was over ten years before mass production of penicillin was achieved, a new period had arrived. Antibiotics proved to be phenomenon drugs in that they destroyed contagion by bacteria without significantly hurting the host, if at all. This was a first in medicine. Never before had nature and sickness seemed so much within the control mankind.

The jubilation was short lived though. Shortly after the general usage of antibiotics began the microscopic world revealed its genius for becoming resistant to antibiotics. It really appeared like a contentment of Darwin's predictive idea and the strong founding of his Theory of Evolution as unwavering. Today, Darwin's Theory of Evolution appears more authenticated than ever by these little microbes. The premature progresses made by antibiotic and antiviral drugs look to be virtually totally overwhelmed by the nonstop evolution of antibiotic and antiviral resistance. So called "Superbugs" are coming up everywhere that are resistant to every antibiotic or antiviral presently known to man. Evolution appears not only to be a delightful, nonetheless to an awful certainty. But is it all really as it looks?

Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics by a very simple method of natural selection. When a large number of bacteria are presented for the first time with an antibiotic, most, if not all of them, die off. If all of them die, then obviously no resistance is gained for that particular bacterial colony or group. The problem is that sometimes one or two or even a few bacteria survive the initial exposure. This is because they were previously resistant before exposure to the antibiotic. Of course, after they survive the initial exposure they reproduce themselves and make a new colony of bacteria. Now, every bacterium in that colony is a clone of the original resistant bacterium and so all of them are resistant to that particular antibiotic to the same degree

Antibiotics have been wonder drugs, curing all sorts of previously hopeless catching ailments. Not surprisingly so, humans have used these drugs foolishly, permitting the microorganisms to rapidly develop ways to get around them. If we as people had been conscious of the principles of evolutionary biology, and had fully apprehended that the substantial use of antibiotics put on colossal selection pressure on microbial inhabitants to develop resistance, and that improper