title: Antibiotic resistance--an alarming health care issue.
abstract: Emerging highly infectious viral agents, resurgent diseases, and mutating bacteria have created a significant and costly health care crisis. Antibiotics that were proven to be definitive weapons against infectious disease now are losing their effectiveness. This article describes the etiology and impact of this global problem and offers perioperative nurses and other health care professionals guidelines about basic infection control and infectious disease prevention to help combat this crisis.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Twomey
mesh_terms: D003428:Cross Infection / Q000191:economics* / Q000517:prevention & control; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D019990:Perioperative Care / Q000451:nursing; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000517:prevention & control; D014481:United States