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Humm.. I actually have a biology question. I don't normally troll around in this part of PF, so I don't know if it has been asked before.
There have been advice to not use antibacterial soaps, and reducing the frequency of use of antibiotics. The reason for this is the report on the more frequent discovery of strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.
My question is, what is the connection between these two?
From my understanding of how evolutionary process occurs, you have mutant strains of a particular species occurring randomly. Thus, presumably antibiotic-resistant strain would occur no matter if one uses antibacterial soaps or antibiotics. So why would using these things promote their "existence"? It is because the antibiotics kill the existing bacterial strains and thus, there's less competition for "food" for the resistant strain?
Zz.
There have been advice to not use antibacterial soaps, and reducing the frequency of use of antibiotics. The reason for this is the report on the more frequent discovery of strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.
My question is, what is the connection between these two?
From my understanding of how evolutionary process occurs, you have mutant strains of a particular species occurring randomly. Thus, presumably antibiotic-resistant strain would occur no matter if one uses antibacterial soaps or antibiotics. So why would using these things promote their "existence"? It is because the antibiotics kill the existing bacterial strains and thus, there's less competition for "food" for the resistant strain?
Zz.