A brief multi-disciplinary review on antimicrobial resistance in medicine and its linkage to the global environmental microbiota
Open Access
- 1 January 2013
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Frontiers Media SA in Frontiers in Microbiology
- Vol. 4, 96
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2013.00096
Abstract
The discovery and introduction of antimicrobial agents to clinical medicine was one of the greatest medical triumphs of the 20th century that revolutionized the treatment of bacterial infections. However, the gradual emergence of populations of antimicrobial-resistant pathogenic bacteria resulting from use, misuse, and abuse of antimicrobials has today become a major global health concern. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes have been suggested to originate from environmental bacteria, as clinically relevant resistance genes have been detected on the chromosome of environmental bacteria. As only a few new antimicrobials have been developed in the last decade, the further evolution of resistance poses a serious threat to public health. Urgent measures are required not only to minimize the use of antimicrobials for prophylactic and therapeutic purposes but also to look for alternative strategies for the control of bacterial infections. This review examines the global picture of antimicrobial resistance, factors that favor its spread, strategies, and limitations for its control and the need for continuous training of all stake-holders i.e., medical, veterinary, public health, and other relevant professionals as well as human consumers, in the appropriate use of antimicrobial drugs.Keywords
This publication has 134 references indexed in Scilit:
- Antimicrobial drug resistance affects broad changes in metabolomic phenotype in addition to secondary metabolismProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013
- Bacterial communities in different sections of a municipal wastewater treatment plant revealed by 16S rDNA 454 pyrosequencingApplied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2012
- Culturable Gut Microbiota Diversity in ZebrafishZebrafish, 2012
- Dissemination of NDM-1 positive bacteria in the New Delhi environment and its implications for human health: an environmental point prevalence studyThe Lancet Infectious Diseases, 2011
- Antibiotic Resistance Gene Abundances Associated with Waste Discharges to the Almendares River near Havana, CubaEnvironmental Science & Technology, 2010
- Emergence of a new antibiotic resistance mechanism in India, Pakistan, and the UK: a molecular, biological, and epidemiological studyThe Lancet Infectious Diseases, 2010
- Sublethal Antibiotic Treatment Leads to Multidrug Resistance via Radical-Induced MutagenesisMolecular Cell, 2010
- Hospital and Societal Costs of Antimicrobial‐Resistant Infections in a Chicago Teaching Hospital: Implications for Antibiotic StewardshipClinical Infectious Diseases, 2009
- Central base pair flipping and discrimination by PspGINucleic Acids Research, 2008
- Sampling the Antibiotic ResistomeScience, 2006