title: Why new antibiotics are not obviously useful now.
abstract: For several years, the threat of antibiotic resistance and its health cost has dramatically risen and various alarming figures have been proposed to illustrate the mortality due to antibiotic resistance. However, predictions concerning different living beings are doomed to failure, as theorised in Alice's 'living croquet' theory. Actors of antibiotic resistance are the doctors, the patient and the bacteria. Considering that animals and the environment are involved, future disasters are unpredictable. Here we evaluate in a rational manner the reliability of scientific sources showing increasing resistance to antibiotics or increasing mortality related to antibiotic resistance, and we finally consider antibiotic resources to face the situation.
authors.affiliation: URMITE, UMR CNRS 6236-IRD 198, Faculté de Médecine, Aix-Marseille Université, 27 Boulevard Jean Moulin, Marseille 13385 CEDEX 5, France; Pôle des Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Clinique et Biologique, Fédération de Bactériologie-Hygiène-Virologie, Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire (IHU) Méditerranée Infection, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Marseille, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Grégory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dubourg
authors.affiliation: URMITE, UMR CNRS 6236-IRD 198, Faculté de Médecine, Aix-Marseille Université, 27 Boulevard Jean Moulin, Marseille 13385 CEDEX 5, France.
authors.forename: Cédric
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Abat
authors.affiliation: URMITE, UMR CNRS 6236-IRD 198, Faculté de Médecine, Aix-Marseille Université, 27 Boulevard Jean Moulin, Marseille 13385 CEDEX 5, France; Pôle des Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Clinique et Biologique, Fédération de Bactériologie-Hygiène-Virologie, Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire (IHU) Méditerranée Infection, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Marseille, Marseille, France. Electronic address: Didier.raoult@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Raoult
mesh_terms: D040981:Acinetobacter baumannii / Q000187:drug effects; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000401:mortality*; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D007711:Klebsiella pneumoniae / Q000187:drug effects; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000187:drug effects; D065507:Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Mortality; Rescue antibiotics