Team:UI-Indonesia/Project/Background

Background

Biofilm is a matrix extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that surrounds microbial colonies and causes more than 65% microbial infections^[17]. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases estimates two million healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), most of which associated with biofilms, happened in the United States annually, approximately 100,000 death^[10].

Bacteria hiding in the biofilm is equipped with high resistance towards antibiotics and victim's immune system, and even protecting them from the stomach acid. Hence, this "armored" bacteria could be very dangerous by worsening the diarrhea, thus an effective treatment and management is needed. A higher dose of antibiotics (works like a cannon) does the trick nicely, but on the other side, a higher dose could increase the possibility of "superbugs" (extreme antibiotic resistance bacteria) and also killing the other bacteria residing in the guts^[5]. So, we proposed another solution to combat these "annoying" armored bacteria.