What exactly is antibiotic sensitivity?.
Antibiotic sensitivity testing is used to determine the susceptibility of bacteria to various antibiotics. This standardized test is used to measure the effectiveness of a variety of antibiotics on a specific organism in order to prescribe the most suitable antibiotic therapy. But in past years antibiotics for various infections were not precise. For one bacterium there could be different variations, and resistance can build when a specific antibiotics are not used. The bacteria when transferred from one person to the next get stronger when a non-specified antibiotic is not taken correctly and a strain of the bacteria is formed that is resilient to antibiotics.
How is a test done to check the sensitivity of an antibiotic?.
On a petri dish the organisms are put on and various antibiotic are placed in various areas they are observed to see how well each antibiotic inhibits the growth of the microorganism. In essence, the test determines the effectiveness of each antibiotic against the particular organism. If an organism is susceptible to an antibiotic, a clear zone will appear around the disk where the growth has been inhibited. The size of this zone of inhibition depends on the sensitivity of the bacteria to the specific antibiotic and the antibiotic's ability to diffuse through the agar. After 18 hours of incubation at 35oC, the clear zones are measured.
In order to determine if an antibiotic will be effective in treating the bacterial infection, the zone of inhibition must be measured and compared to a standard. An organism is not considered to be sensitive to an antibiotic unless the zone of no growth is as large or larger than the predetermined zone for a particular antibiotic. This kind of testing is called Kirby Bauer Antibiotic Sensitivity Testing.
Today and Antibiotic Sensitivity.
In SEXUALLY TRANSMITED DIESEASES it is important that antibiotics be antibioticsensitive.