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Originally Posted by Tervuren
The antibiotics as I understand, do not create resistant strains, rather they kill off what isn't resistant to that antibiotic. Eventually this leaves behind a population of what is resistant.
So its like getting a breather now, for something that would be a problem anyway if you didn't, and will end up being a problem again in the future.
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That is not the way I understand it. There are genetically determined levels of resistance within a strain. A strain that may have a 20% survival rate to an antibiotic can eventually have much higher survival rate, as the susceptible individuals are killed off and those genetically predisposed to survive reproduce. In the absence of the antibiotic the population would continue with a 20% rate. So no, we are not just putting of a problem, we are creating it.