Scientists from the Sanger Institute, the University of Oslo and the University of Cambridge have discovered a new cause of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The results of the study are published in the journal The Lancet Microbe.
Experts compared more than 700 blood samples infected with E. coli with nearly 5,000 samples of bacteria with sequenced genomes to determine the factors behind the spread of antibiotic-resistant E. coli.
It was shown that increased use of antibiotics does lead to an increase in the number of resistant microbes. However, this depends on the type of broad-spectrum antibiotics used. In addition, the genetic makeup of the bacteria plays an important role, which may affect the success of resistance genes. Thus, it is impossible to predict what the effect of the widespread use of the same antibiotic will be in different regions of the earth.
