Self-Study Quiz: What Can We Do About Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria? You Decide What Can We Do About Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria? !Summarize, evaluate, and argue the validity of the data that demonstrate the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Then present a plan for reducing this problem in the future. Keep these questions in mind: !

• What data supports the hypothesis that antibiotic-resistance is on the rise? What problems do you see in this data? Can you propose a way to overcome these problems?

• Which methods have been successful in decreasing the number of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains? Which methods have not?

• What shortcomings or errors do these given studies have? Can you design a new study that would overcome them?

Student Deliverable:

Summarize, evaluate, and argue the validity of the data that demonstrate the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Doctors have recently become aware that the over prescription of antibiotics can contribute to the evolution of bacteria resistant bacteria. The number of antibiotic prescriptions is an indicator to the problem. In order to find out wether or not the over prescribing of a antibiotic prescription is the cause of the problem , researchers studied people infected with Streptococcus Pneumoniae. After isolating the bacteria from every patient, researchers determined whether those bacteria were resistant to a variety of antibiotics. During the four years of study they found the bacteria became more resistant from 1995-1998.

Present a plan for reducing this problem in the future.

!In order to slow the evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria, doctors decided to rotate antibiotics. over the course of an infection doctors began to switch the prescriptions they gave to patents. This study showed to ineffective. Another approach to reduce this problem was to reduce the number of prescriptions of antibiotic all together. This approach was effective. !!!!!!!!