News tagged with drug resistance Related topics: antibiotics ,
cancer cells , breast cancer , hiv , malaria Drug resistance is
the reduction in effectiveness of a drug in curing a disease or
improving a patient's symptoms. When the drug is not intended to
kill or inhibit a pathogen, then the term is equivalent to
dosage failure or drug tolerance. More commonly, the term is
used in the context of diseases caused by pathogens. Pathogens
are said to be drug-resistant when drugs meant to neutralize
them have reduced effect. When an organism is resistant to more
than one drug, it is said to be multidrug resistant. Drug
resistance is an example of evolution in microorganisms.
Individuals that are not susceptible to the drug effects are
capable of surviving drug treatment, and therefore have greater
fitness than susceptible individuals. By the process of natural
selection, drug resistant traits are selected for in subsequent
offspring, resulting in a population that is drug resistant.
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