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Why do antibiotics become ineffective over time?
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Antibiotics are considered to be one of the most common medications. However, they should be taken with caution, as such drugs can lead to a worsening of the disease, as well as the emergence of new varieties of microorganisms that are resistant to the effects of conventional antibiotics.
More than fifteen years ago, scientists first raised the issue of bacterial resistance, when microorganisms stop responding to antibiotics. For example, just a few decades after the discovery of penicillin group drugs, every second staphylococcal bacterium stopped responding to the drug. But at that time, specialists did not consider this a problem, hoping that new, more effective antibiotics would be discovered to replace penicillin. But, in fact, everything turned out differently. New antibiotics, if they are created, are only based on "old" prototypes.
An example is antibiotic therapy for gonorrhea. Just a decade ago, the disease could be cured with virtually no problems. However, currently, more than 60% of pathogenic microorganisms that cause gonorrhea do not respond to antibiotic treatment. Scientists are perplexed: it is quite possible that in another decade there will simply be nothing to treat this disease with.
Why does this happen?
Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor V. Rafalsky claims that the culprit is frequent and uncontrolled use of antibiotics by patients - and this use is far from always justified. Since such drugs are most often sold in pharmacies without a prescription, people buy them themselves and take them for almost any disease. Incorrect treatment with drugs gives rise to the so-called "habituation" and adaptation of bacteria to antibiotic therapy.
The lack of new antibiotics on the pharmaceutical market is also of considerable importance. Scientists have calculated that the creation of even one new drug costs millions of dollars. At the same time, pathogenic microorganisms quickly become resistant, and the new drug also stops "working". This leads to the fact that creating another new antibacterial drug is simply unprofitable.
What can be done in this situation? Experts are unanimous: doctors should reconsider their attitude to antibiotic therapy and prescribe such drugs as rarely as possible. In addition, it is necessary to do everything possible to prevent self-medication by patients. In most European countries, antibiotics are purchased in pharmacies only with a prescription from a doctor. In our country, as in other post-Soviet countries, medications are sold without any restrictions. Experts are sounding the alarm: antibiotics are very serious drugs, the use of which without necessity can be very dangerous. You cannot take such drugs for prevention: the development of bacterial resistance can lead to the fact that at the moment when antibiotics are really needed, they will not have the necessary effect.