Multidrug tolerance or
antibiotic tolerance is the ability of a disease-causing
microorganism to resist killing by
antibiotics or other
antimicrobials. It is mechanistically distinct from multidrug resistance: It is not caused by
mutant microbes, but rather by microbial cells that exist in a transient,
dormant, non-dividing state. Microorganisms that display multidrug tolerance can be
bacteria,
fungi or
parasites.