The Scourge Called Antibiotic Resistance

CHARLES Darwin, in his famous work On the Origin of Species (1859), wrote: “Each slight variation [of a trait], if useful, is preserved.” Seen in a different perspective, this principle tells us that a useful variation, even so slight, is preserved in a specific organism, and becomes its edge for survival.

This active principle in nature works in more complex organisms such as humans as it does in those of simplest forms: bacteria. Good or bad, the most adaptive organisms survive to see another day.

Scientists are convinced more than ever that antibiotic resistance evolved through... [Read more]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu on 8 December 2010.

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