alleryStart learning →High doses of antibiotics can let which organism overgrow the gut and cause chronic diarrhea?
ASalmonella enterica serovar Typhi
BEscherichia coli serotype O157:H7
CClostridium difficile of the gut
DStaphylococcus aureus, or staph
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. Clostridium difficile of the gut
1. High doses of antibiotics strip out many of the normal gut bacteria.
2. Clostridium difficile is naturally antibiotic resistant, so it survives and overgrows.
3. The result is severe gastric problems, especially chronic diarrhea.
4. Treating that overgrowth with more antibiotics only makes it worse.
5. Fecal transplants from healthy donors have been used successfully to rebuild the normal community.
_Source: OpenStax Biology (1st ed., CC BY 4.0), Ch 22 "Prokaryotes: Bacteria and Archaea", section 22.5 Beneficial Prokaryotes_
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