Topics to Consider for Antibiotic Resistance Discussions The Bacteria Strike Back What do the terms MRSA and

d VRE stand for? About how many years after penicillin was widely used did it take for its effectiveness against hospital acquired staff infections to be eliminated? When was the drug cephalosporin developed? When were bacteria resistant to this drug first discovered? In about what percent of the population can S. aureus be found naturally? Describe very briefly two mechanisms that enable bacteria to become resistant to penicillin. How has the incidence of resistant strains of MRSA, VRE, & FQRB as a increased over time? At the time this article was published, in San Francisco, what percentage of strains of S. aureus were methicillin resistant? Why is the pipeline for the development of new antibacterial agents so small? How many new antibiotics were approved by the FDA in the period between 1983 & 1987? How many were approved between 2003 - 2007? Why are these so different? What Doesn't Kill Microbes, Makes Them Stronger What was the traditional view of the development of antibiotic resistance? How has this view changed in the past six years? What are free radicals (ROS) and how are antibiotics related to ROS contrations in bacteria? How do non-lethal levels of antibiotics lead to increase mutation rates in bacteria? How does an increase in mutation rate possibly lead to antibiotic resistance? Can exposure to sublethal concentrations of one antibiotic trigger increased resistance to other, unrelated antibiotics?

Other Topics for your Consideration Should there be more federal regulations regarding the use of antibiotics on farm animals such as cows, pigs, and chicken? Who would benefit from this? Who would not benefit from this? Would the benefits be worth the costs? Should you increase or decrease your use of antibiotic soaps? Why or why not? Should you take antibiotics if you have a cold? Why or why not? Should the National Science Foundation support projects designed to study the ecology and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance? If so, how much tax dollars per year would you bewilling to spend per year on this research? How would you justify this given the historic deficit our country is currently running or would you simply choose not to fund this?