Patients often discontinue their medication courses early once symptoms improve, leaving mutated, partially resistant bacteria alive to multiply.
To understand the scale of the threat, it is essential to understand how bacteria bypass medical interventions. Antibiotic resistance is a natural evolutionary phenomenon. When populations of bacteria are exposed to an antibiotic, the most susceptible strains are eradicated. However, a small minority may possess genetic mutations that allow them to survive. These surviving "superbugs" then reproduce, passing on their resistant traits to subsequent generations.