There is no animal as majestic as the African elephant. Standing 3 meters tall, with tusks as long as 2 meters, they are a sight to behold.
Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park had nearly 4,000 pachyderms fifty years ago. Then, in 1977, a civil war broke out between two large factions.
Both sides needed funds for the conflict. They found a perfect revenue source: Ivory.
One by one, those stately beasts were killed, yielding 60 kg of ivory per slaughter. By the time the fighting ended in 1992, only ten per cent of the original jumbos had remained.
Big tusks give elephants a better ability to dig, strip bark and defend against predators. But when faced with Mozambique’s gun-wielding killers, they conferred a death sentence.
Most survivors had very small or no tusks, which is why they were not butchered. In the wild, only three per cent of female mammoths are tuskless; in Gorongosa, when the bloodshed ended, it was 51 per cent.
Environmentalists hoped that Mozambican pachyderms born after the war would have normal-sized tusks. To their surprise, 32 per cent of the new female giants had none.
Evolution had acted in just one generation, raising the natural chances of having a ‘tuskless’ gene from 3% to 32%.
Accelerated Evolution
Charles Darwin is known for his ‘Theory of Natural Selection’.
He claimed that any inheritable characteristic that survives a hostile environment becomes dominant in future generations. In Mozambique, elephants with genes for smaller tusks had a better chance of surviving and passing them on to their progeny.
The force of evolution should work over hundreds of generations of a species. However, the African pachyderms showed that with rapid annihilation of a particular trait, the breed quickly evolves to have a variation that outlasts the assault.
This should alarm us when using antibiotics.
Antibiotics
Antibiotics are medicines that kill bacteria and are used to treat infections. They cannot destroy viruses, which need antiviral drugs or supportive care.
Prescriptions
Each antibiotic medicine targets a specific type of bacteria. One should not take any random antibiotic for a suspected infection, which is a dangerous self-treatment trend in India.
Based on the infecting pathogen, doctors carefully choose an antibiotic. They also specify its strength, formulation, route, frequency and duration. For example:
Amoxicillin 250 mg Tablets, P.O. T.i.d. x 7 day
It means ‘Take amoxicillin antibiotic tablets of 250 mg strength, orally, thrice a day for seven days’.
The purpose is to maintain the medicine’s blood levels above a certain threshold for a sufficient duration to kill the entire population of the targeted bacteria. So the patient must adhere verbatim to that prescription.
The length of time is critical. That is why it is called ‘a course of antibiotics’.
Bacterial Pushback
The bacteria have ways to counter the medicinal attack, at least for some time. For example, they may have genes to help produce enzymes that deactivate the toxic antibiotic.
Within the chosen microbial population, not all bacteria are equal. Some with more protective genes don’t die as quickly as their weaker brethren.
As one continues the antibiotic, more and more microbes are killed, subsiding the symptoms. This may lull one to believe that the infection is cured.
Antibiotic Resistance
If one stops the antibiotic at this stage, its blood levels fall below the killing threshold, and the remaining sturdy bacteria survive. Due to their small number, they may stay dormant in the body.
If a similar infection recurs, the same antibiotic may be needed in a higher dose because the bacterial population has sturdier genes to fight back. If this repeats a few times, that group of microbes can’t be killed by the antibiotic.
That bacterial strain is now said to be resistant to that antibiotic, and not just in that person, but across mankind.
Examples
- Bacteria (MRSA) that lead to pneumonia, blood and skin infections have developed resistance to antibiotics like methicillin.
- Bacteria (MDR-TB) that cause tuberculosis have become resistant to the most effective TB medicines like isoniazid and rifampin.
- Bacteria (CRE) causing life-threatening infections of the urinary tract, lungs, abdomen and blood are now resistant to the last-resort antibiotics – carbapenems.
Consequences
A drug-resistant infection can increase the treatment costs and risks, as it needs longer hospitalisation.
Often, the only solution is a more potent antibiotic, with more side effects. If this pattern repeats over the years, one needs progressively higher classes of antibiotics for that type of affliction.
Current science knows a limited number of antibiotic groups. When there are no arrows left in the medical quiver, those hardened bacteria will kill the patient.
If the person passes on that particular infection to another individual, possibly a family member, the same fate awaits the other person.
Entire mankind is vulnerable to that infectious strain, with consequences as dire as Covid-19, or worse. Everyone will pay for the mistakes of one individual.
Antibiotics in Viral Infections
Even experts struggle to distinguish between bacterial and viral infections because the symptoms overlap. Read on the Fortis Hospital website: Symptoms and Diagnosis: How to Differentiate Between Viral Fever and Bacterial Fever.
Since the condition can escalate rapidly and become life-threatening, doctors often prescribe antibiotic treatment on a presumptive basis. Sometimes, it is started to prevent secondary infections, which take root due to reduced immunity in the prevailing ailment.
In either situation, patients may discontinue the antibiotic course once the diagnosis is confirmed to be non-bacterial. This can increase the risk of antibiotic resistance.
Medical Disagreement
Finally, as is often the case, the medical fraternity has dissenting voices. Some scientists have claimed in the renowned British Medical Journal that failing to complete an antibiotic course does not cause antibiotic resistance. Please ignore this view until it finds more peer support.
Summary
- The lesson from the plight of Mozambican elephants is that bacterial resistance can develop due to the incorrect use of antibiotics.
- Always complete your full course of antibiotics, whether the symptoms persist or not.
To read more
- W.H.O.: Antibiotic Resistance
- C.D.C.: About Antibiotic Resistance
- Radcliffe Labs: Viral vs Bacterial Fever: Symptoms and Treatment Differences
- On this website: How to regenerate the immune system with fasting
First Published on: 30th November 2021
Image Credit: Ed Peeters on Pexels
Last Updated on: 1st July 2025