Higher antibiotic doses may make bacteria ‘fitter’: study

Antimicrobial resistance has been labeled by the United Nations as “one of the greatest threats we face as a global community” and is predicted to cause 10 million deaths annually by 2050.

Previous research has shown that inflicting higher antibiotic doses on bacteria can slow its ability to develop resistance, yet little attention has been paid to how those higher doses impact the overall health of microbes. 

A team of Britain- and Europe-based researchers found that while higher antibiotic doses slowed the rate at which the bacteria developed resistance, they also gave rise to bacteria with “higher overall fitness” – meaning it had a higher rate of reproduction.