Which of the following are the reasons for the occurrence of multi-drug resistance in microbial pathogens in India?
1. Genetic predisposition of some people
2. Taking incorrect doses of antibiotics to cure diseases
3. Using antibiotics in livestock farming
4. Multiple chronic diseases in some people
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Explanation
Multi-drug resistance (MDR) occurs when bacterial strains mutate or acquire plasmid-mediated resistance genes that render conventional antimicrobial drugs ineffective:
– 2. Incorrect doses of antibiotics (Primary driver): Sub-therapeutic doses, incomplete therapeutic courses, and non-prescribed over-the-counter consumption exert selective survival pressure, allowing partially resistant microbes to survive, mutate, and multiply.
– 3. Antibiotic use in livestock farming (Primary driver): The prophylactic use of non-therapeutic antibiotics as growth promoters in commercial poultry, dairy, and aquaculture enters the food supply and wastewater, fostering resistant bacterial strains that cross to humans.
– 1 & 4 (Not direct causes of bacterial resistance): Genetic makeup or presence of multiple chronic diseases in individual human patients does not directly cause microbial pathogens to mutate their cellular mechanisms against antibiotics.
Therefore, the recognized causes are 2 and 3 only — Option B.