New Approaches to the Control of Infections Caused by Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

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Abstract
The Emergence of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and Its Consequences One of the most remarkable accomplishments of this century has been the successful development of antibiotics for the chemotherapy of bacterial infections.1These agents have produced impressive reductions in the morbidity and mortality imposed by microbial pathogens. Unfortunately, the increasing widespread emergence of acquired resistance to antibiotics over the last 40 years now constitutes a serious threat to global public health1-3and is a growing problem in both hospital-acquired (nosocomial) and community-acquired infections. The antibiotic resistance problem is exacerbated by the genetic exchange of resistance determinants among bacteria.1-3In addition, demographic factors, such as population growth and urbanization, generate conditions that may facilitate the transmission of infections. New opportunities for interspecies traffic of new pathogens to human beings may occur as a consequence of human colonization in previously undisturbed rural ecosystems and accompanying perturbation in host-pathogen ecology.4Bacterial