Chapter title |
Tackling Threats and Future Problems of Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria
|
---|---|
Chapter number | 492 |
Book title |
How to Overcome the Antibiotic Crisis
|
Published in |
Current topics in microbiology and immunology, July 2016
|
DOI | 10.1007/82_2016_492 |
Pubmed ID | |
Book ISBNs |
978-3-31-949282-7, 978-3-31-949284-1
|
Authors |
Medina, Eva, Pieper, Dietmar Helmut, Eva Medina, Dietmar Helmut Pieper |
Abstract |
With the advent of the antibiotic era, the overuse and inappropriate consumption and application of antibiotics have driven the rapid emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens. Antimicrobial resistance increases the morbidity, mortality, length of hospitalization and healthcare costs. Among Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and multidrug-resistant (MDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and among the Gram-negative bacteria, extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBLs)-producing bacteria have become a major global healthcare problem in the 21st century. The pressure to use antibiotics guarantees that the spread and prevalence of these as well as of future emerging multidrug-resistant pathogens will be a persistent phenomenon. The unfeasibility of reversing antimicrobial resistance back towards susceptibility and the critical need to treat bacterial infection in modern medicine have burdened researchers and pharmaceutical companies to develop new antimicrobials effective against these difficult-to-treat multidrug-resistant pathogens. However, it can be anticipated that antibiotic resistance will continue to develop more rapidly than new agents to treat these infections become available and a better understanding of the molecular, evolutionary and ecological mechanisms governing the spread of antibiotic resistance is needed. The only way to curb the current crisis of antimicrobial resistance will be to develop entirely novel strategies to fight these pathogens such as combining antimicrobial drugs with other agents that counteract and obstruct the antibiotic resistant mechanisms expressed by the pathogen. Furthermore, as many antibiotics are often inappropriately prescribed, a more personalized approach based on precise diagnosis tools will ensure that proper treatments can be promptly applied leading to more targeted and effective therapies. However, in more general terms, also the overall use and release of antibiotics in the environment needs to be better controlled. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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United Kingdom | 2 | 40% |
Spain | 1 | 20% |
Unknown | 2 | 40% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
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Members of the public | 5 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Unknown | 459 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Bachelor | 68 | 15% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 64 | 14% |
Student > Master | 58 | 13% |
Researcher | 25 | 5% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 19 | 4% |
Other | 57 | 12% |
Unknown | 168 | 37% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 89 | 19% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 38 | 8% |
Immunology and Microbiology | 34 | 7% |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 29 | 6% |
Chemistry | 26 | 6% |
Other | 59 | 13% |
Unknown | 184 | 40% |