Study shows antibiotics can stimulate growth in bacteria

Scientists at the UK-based University of Exeter have discovered that antibiotics, used to treat number of infections, have the potential to stimulate the growth of bacteria. The EPSRC-funded researchers exposed E.coli bacteria to eight rounds of antibiotic treatment over four days and found the bug - which can cause severe stomach pain, diarrhoea and kidney failure in humans - had increased antibiotic resistance with each treatment.

This had been expected, but researchers were surprised to find mutated E.coli reproduced faster than before encountering the drugs and formed populations that were three times larger because of the mutations.

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