Description
Are we entering the post-antibiotic era? Emerging multi resistant bacteria as a major threat for public health
The invention of antibiotics and their use to combat infectious diseases is a major step in the development of modern medicine. The application of substances that specifically target pathways that are expressed by bacteria, but not the human host, opened the way to reduce the mortality of infectious diseases significantly. And indeed, with the increasing availability of antimicrobial substances, it was assumed that in the future, infections will be of no threat for humans anymore. However, even the very beginning of the antimicrobial ear, it became evident that bacterial populations that are put under selective pressure certainly will evolve mechanisms allowing them to grow and proliferate even in the presence of high concentrations of a given antimicrobial. While these emerging resistant clones did not pose an immediate problem given the fast introduction of novel antimicrobials into the market, today the spread of resistant bacteria is a world wide threat that will change our approach towards treating bacterial infections. The problem we are facing relates on one hand to the slow development of novel therapeutic principle; on the other hand, the emerging bacterial pathogens are no more resistant against a single substance, but usually express mechanisms rendering them resistant against a wide variety of antimicrobials. Sometimes, such bacteria can become resistant against all known antimicrobials available today. In this lecture, we will look at basic mechanisms that facilitate resistance in bacterial pathogens and how these mechanisms can evolve and spread within bacterial populations. Looking at recent developments in epidemiology of multi-resistant pathogens, we will understand the different strategies and routes that promote spread of resistant pathogens, and we will have a look at recent approaches to combat the spread of such pathogens.
