Written By: Shraddha Rupavate | Updated : March 29, 2014 5:37 PM IST
It might happen that when you visit a doctor, skim through health magazines or surf the internet, you come across a few intricate medical words that you have heard but you don't understand. Well, most medical terms may sound complicated but have a simple explanation. So here is today's word -superbug.
Superbug is one term that keeps appearing in health related news and research. It is actually a colloquial term used for bacterial strain that is resistant to antibiotics. Superbugs have emerged because of misuse or inappropriate use of antibiotics.
Here's how we are misusing antibiotics in general. Whenever you're down with an infection, your doctor prescribes you some antibiotics to kill the organism that's causing the disease in you. If you don't follow your prescription or fail to complete the course of therapy, this gives an opportunity to the organisms to change their DNA (or get mutated) in order to protect themselves from getting killed with the action of antibiotics. Once they get mutated, antibiotics are no longer effective on them, making the treatment totally ineffective.
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The best example of antibiotic resistance is MDR (multiple drug resistant) and XXDR (extremely rug resistant) strains responsible for making treatment of tuberculosis difficult. The reason why superbugs are dangerous and are called so is because they are capable of exchanging their survival mechanism with other bacteria allowing other bacteria to become resistant.
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