Introduction | Antibiotics in Human Medicine | The Antibiotic Arsenal | Antimicrobial Use in Food Animals | Solutions to the Resistance Problem
Andrew Moyer, in his Peoria laboratory, discovered the process for mass producing penicillin. Courtesy of the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA. The growing resistance of bacterial strains to antibiotics such as penicillin is a major issues in today's biomedical research. Courtesy of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Before the first antibiotic, penicillin, was discovered nearly 75 years ago, millions of people died from infections that are easily treated today. As scientists discovered and developed more and more antimicrobials, health professionals and the public alike believed these “magic bullets” would protect us from all manner of infectious foes.
But microbes are not passive foes. Challenged by decades of drug exposure, they are fighting back through adaptation and natural selection, evolving defensive mechanisms and evasive tactics to render antimicrobials impotent.
In spite of the many advances in microbiology, biochemistry, and drug discovery and development in recent years, we are not keeping pace with the ability of microbes to adapt to and resist antibacterials. We have developed only one new class of antibiotics in the last 40 years.
Antibiotic resistance is increasing worldwide, creating organisms that no longer respond to treatment with many of the drugs that we have. Fortunately, efforts to increase awareness of the problem are on the rise as well. Learning more about the problem and how to wisely use antibiotics is an important first step in addressing the resistance problem.
Antibiotics in Human Medicine can help you learn if your prescription is one of the 50% that are inappropriate or not needed.
The Antibiotic Arsenal looks at the effort to develop new agents to fight infectious diseases.
Antimicrobial Use in Animals examines the link between antibiotic usage in food animals and the rise in resistant bacteria in humans.
Solutions to the Resistance Problem tells what the government, scientists, health professionals and you can do to slow resistance and use antibiotics more wisely.
Introduction | Antibiotics in Human Medicine | The Antibiotic Arsenal | Antimicrobial Use in Food Animals | Solutions to the Resistance Problem
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