Antibiotic treatment of bacteria infections has a broad effect on the microbial flora in the environments of the treated individuals. This activity affects others sharing the same household and community: susceptible strains are decimated and resistant ones flourish. Moreover, antibiotics enter the environment after treatment. Since only a minority of resistance mechanisms destroy the drug, the antibiotic residues remain, at less than therapeutic levels, able to select resistant bacteria. As a consequence of antibiotic use and misuse, “reservoirs of antibiotic resistance” have emerged in non-pathogenic bacteria which can exchange their resistance traits with other bacteria, including those causing diseases in people and animals. The more recent appearance of antibacterials in cleaning agents also threatens to change the microbial environment in which people interact. Clinical isolates cross-resistant to antibacterials and antibiotics have appeared in hospital patients. Their potential emergence in healthy homes and the community at-large increases as use of these products escalates. Current and future use of antibiotics and antibacterials should take into account the consequence of overuse on the environment. Selection and propagation of resistant strains amplify the reservoirs of resistance traits and the likelihood of antibiotic-resistant infections. See www.mi-marr.org, www.apua.org, www.cdc.gov
Learning Objectives: Viewer of this session will -understand the global threat of antimicrobial resistance -be able to describe the means for dissemination and proliferation of resistant microbes
Keywords: Antibiotic Resistance, Antimicrobial Drugs
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.