World Faces Global Pandemic Of Antibiotic Resistance, Experts Warn

All antibiotic use "uses up" some of the effectiveness of that antibiotic, diminishing the ability to use it in the future, experts warn, and antibiotics can no longer be considered as a renewable source. (Credit: iStockphoto/David Marchal)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2008) — Vital components of modern medicine such as major surgery, organ transplantation, and cancer chemotherapy will be threatened if antibiotic resistance is not tackled urgently, warn experts on bmj.com.

A concerted global response is needed to address rising rates of bacterial resistance caused by the use and abuse of antibiotics or "we will return to the pre-antibiotic era", write Professor Otto Cars and colleagues in an editorial.

All antibiotic use "uses up" some of the effectiveness of that antibiotic, diminishing the ability to use it in the future, write the authors, and antibiotics can no longer be considered as a renewable source.

They point out that existing antibiotics are losing their effect at an alarming pace, while the development of new antibiotics is declining. More than a dozen new classes of antibiotics were developed between 1930 and 1970, but only two new classes have been developed since then.

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