A patient has finished his treatment for a bacterial infection with an antibiotic and feels better.However,four days later the same bacterial infection returns.The doctor prescribes the same course of antibiotics,but this time these antibiotics do not cure the patient.What would be the most likely reason for this?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The fact that the patient felt better but the infection returned after four days suggests that the initial course of antibiotics was effective but failed to completely eradicate the bacterial population. The subsequent treatment with the same antibiotics indicates that the bacteria were assumed to be non-resistant, but this second treatment was ineffective, indicating that resistance had developed. This scenario is consistent with the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria due to the presence of a resistance gene in a small subset of the bacterial population, which survived the initial treatment and were able to pass on the resistance gene to their offspring.

A Patient Has Finished His Treatment for a Bacterial Infection