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Contributing Factors Many factors have contributed to the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance, including the expanding population of immuno-compromised patients, the increased use of invasive medical procedures, and the inappropriate use of antibiotics in both medicine and agriculture. Many bacteria have become resistant to all antibiotics including vancomycin, an antibiotic used as a last resort. With every use of antibiotics, resistant bacteria survive while susceptible strains are annihilated, thus increasing the prevalence of resistance in the environment. Every major class of antibiotic has lost varying degrees of efficacy against a number of pathogenic bacteria because of resistance.
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