Antimicrobial resistance mechanisms
By Telesphory Wamara and Sarafina Msigwa. Antimicrobial drug resistance is the acquired ability of a microorganism to resist the effects of an antimicrobial agent to which it is normally susceptible, or we can define a resistant organism as one that will not be inhibited or killed by an antibacterial agent at concentrations of the drug achievable in the body after normal dosage. Some species are innately resistant to some families of antibiotics because they lack a susceptible target, are impermeable to or enzymatically inactivate the antibacterial agent, the Gram-negative rods with their outer membrane layer exterior to the cell wall peptidoglycan are less permeable to large molecules than Gram-positive cells. No single antimicrobial agent inhibits all microorganisms, and some form of antimicrobial drug resistance is an inherent property of virtually all microorganisms, Several factors are associated with emergence of resistance among organisms. These factors include Widespread