SILENCE
TRANQUIL MUSIC
VOICE-OVER: Bacteria are tiny organisms that often multiply rapidly.
Everyone carries good and bad bacteria.
If there are too many bad bacteria, a serious infection can develop.
That can make you very ill.
The bacteria that cause such infections can be controlled using antibiotics.
Antibiotics kill the bacteria or inhibit their growth.
This helps your body to recover.
Sometimes bacteria are insusceptible to an antibiotic.
They are therefore resistant.
These resistant bacteria have protected themselves against the antibiotic.
Antibiotics kill off susceptible bacteria,
giving resistant bacteria the chance to multiply.
The infection is therefore caused by resistant bacteria.
This infection is more difficult to treat,
because the usual antibiotics do not work.
So doctors have to choose antibiotics of which they have less knowledge
or that have more side effects.
If antibiotics are used incorrectly or too often
this increases the chances of bacteria becoming resistant.
So it's important to carefully consider whether antibiotics really need to be used.
This way it will still be possible to treat infections in the future.