The Rise of Super Acne – Is Anyone Safe?
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Dermatologists increasingly recognize a disturbing new trend – the increase in acne caused by bacterial that are resistant to antibiotics. These forms of acne are difficult to treat and bode ill for public health reasons as well. Some refer to the problem as Super Acne.
To understand this disturbing trend, we need to think a little about what causes antibiotic resistance in the first place. By now, most people have heard of methacillin resistant staph aureaus (MRSA). The same factors that lead to MRSA are behind the acne problem as well.
Bacteria continually multiple and as they do genetic mutations can occur. Rarely, a mutation that makes a bacteria resistant to an antibiotic can occur.
When there are a lot of other bacteria around, the ones that have the resistance gene can’t multiply as readily. However, if the person carrying the bacteria takes an antibiotic, all the bacteria sensitive to the bacteria are killed. This leaves the resistant bacteria few to multiply rapidly and take over.
That is why methacillin no longer works for over half of staph infections and why the bacteria that causes acne are becoming resistant to antibiotics as well.
Because of this, physicians are less likely to prescribe antibiotics for acne. In the past it was relatively common for a physician to prescribe a daily low dose of an antibiotic, usually tetracycline or erythromycin, for acne. That’s much less frequent, and that’s a good thing.
As you’ll see on this blog, there are a lot of other treatments for acne available. You should definitely use them before taking antibiotics. I especially recommend Acne Free In Three Days as a good, antibiotic-free approach to treating acne.
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