Answer:
Antibiotics save lives but any time antibiotics are used, they can cause side effects and lead to antibiotic resistance.
Since the 1940s, antibiotics have greatly reduced illness and death from infectious diseases. However, as we use the drugs, germs develop defense strategies against them. This makes the drugs less effective.
Antibiotics fight germs (bacteria and fungi). But germs fight back and find new ways to survive. Their defense strategies are called resistance mechanisms. Bacteria develop resistance mechanisms by using instructions provided by their DNA. Often, resistance genes are found within plasmids, small pieces of DNA that carry genetic instructions from one germ to another. This means that some bacteria can share their DNA and make other germs become resistant.
