Many infections resist treatment, making some impossible to cure. This has a main reason: bacteria for nutrients during infection. Starved bacteria resist nearly every type of antibiotic, even new ones they have never been exposed to before. Scientists say that bacteria becomes starved when they run out of nutrients in the body, or when they live in biofilms. Biofilms are clusters of bacteria encased in a slimy coating, and Dr. Pradeep Singh says that an important factor in why biofilms resist so much to antibiotics is that the bacteria on the outside receive most of the nutrients in the body, starving the bacteria on the inside, who then become immune to the antibiotics. Scientists have tested whether bacteria only become resistant if they are aware of their starvation, and have been amazed - bacteria that were unaware of their starvation were thousands of times less resistant to antibiotics than aware starved ones. This means that what bacteria don't know can hurt them.
I think that once again, "what you don't know can't hurt you" has been proved wrong. I also was really amazed that starving bacteria would, instead of weakening, become stronger! It's also really unfair, though, to patients and scientists. They say that because of this, it's really hard to invent new, effective antibiotics.
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