Why might a physician be likely to develop bacteria that are resistant to all an!


Question: a physician might be at a higher risk for contracting an antibiotic resistant strain of pathogen because of the occupational risk of dealing with those that have the said strain. But unless the doctor is willy nilly taking antibiotics, he/she is not going to "develop" a drug resistant bacteria.


Answers: a physician might be at a higher risk for contracting an antibiotic resistant strain of pathogen because of the occupational risk of dealing with those that have the said strain. But unless the doctor is willy nilly taking antibiotics, he/she is not going to "develop" a drug resistant bacteria.

Often physicians are around people with infections, a job hazard. The bacteria are usually exposed to low doses of antibiotics, thus prompting a reading frame shift in the rRNA. This causes the bacteria to become drug resistant. You learn how to do this in Microbiology 500 in college if you are going to be a Pharmacist or Physician.

My first guess is that he, like a large number of other people, has taken antibiotics too often or not as reccommended by the manufacturer such as taking them for viruses when they are not appropriate or only taking the drugs until he feels better which is the number one reason why there are bacteria that have outsmarted all of our drugs. I agree that he has probably come in contact with a larger number of individual "bugs" (germs) than John Q Public but as a nurse, I credit a pretty good immune system to being in contact with many germs, there-by developing some natural immunity to some of them. The general state of health, age, and type of practice also need to be figured into the mix. And, I have worked behind docs that don't alcohol their stethescopes between patients or even wash their hands or practice good infection control period. Most do (!) but compliance varries. Hope this helps.





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