To fight a bacterial infection, a patient was given an antibiotic to take for 10 days. After the patient finished taking the antibiotics as directed, almost all the bacteria were killed. After another 10 days, the patient was sick again with the same type of infection.
What most likely happened?
The antibiotic slowed the life cycle of the bacteria.
The patient’s high fever inactivated the antibiotic, allowing the surviving bacteria to grow rapidly.
Some of the bacteria were resistant to the antibiotic, and they were the ones left to reproduce.
A few bacteria survived the antibiotics and stopped reproducing.