Antimicrobial resistance: is it really that bad?
Antimicrobial resistance has been the subject of this and numerous other special issues of pediatric and infectious disease journals during the past several years. Pediatricians may be forgiven for expressing skepticism occasionally about dour scenarios predicting the advent of untreatable infections or a return to the preantibiotic era. Certainly, some benefits may accrue to pharmaceutical companies, academic and public health experts, and managed care systems from promoting concern about antimicrobial resistance. In fact, the response to the spread of resistance has been forceful, and in some cases successful, with reductions achieved in unnecessary prescribing, treatment regimens modified, and some new antimicrobial agents made available during the past several years. The problem, however, remains substantial, as several clear examples of dangerous and nearly untreatable multiply resistant organisms exist and the costs associated with treating resistant organisms continue to skyrocket. In many instances in the developing world, antimicrobial resistance can mean that a formerly treatable infection has become untreatable, and for pediatricians in the United States, resistance has, at the least, complicated therapy and limited options in everyday practice.
Dowell
Scott F
SF
International Emerging Infections Program, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Thai Ministry of Public Health, Building 7, Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Tivanon Road, Nonthaburi, Thailand.
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology; D003140:Communicable Disease Control; D003906:Developing Countries; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents