We are headed for a post-antibiotic world in which we will have few or no clinical interventions for some infections. We have been seeing Staphylococcus aureus infections shift from 0% resistant to methicillin to approximately 65% being resistant over the 20 years between 1980 and 2000. Similar antibiotic resistance trajectory has been recorded for vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) and fluoroquinolone-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (FQPA). Currently, we are facing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE).
The list of antibiotic-resistant pathogens is expansive and continues to grow rapidly. Over 70% of the bacteria that cause hospital-associated infections (HAIs) are now resistant to at least one (and often several) of the primary antibiotics used to treat them. Further adding to the criticality of mitigating the impact of these infectious threats is that of our aging…
