Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02111, USA
Abstract
Antibiotic resistance has become a major clinical and public health problem within the lifetime of most people living today. Confronted by increasing amounts of antibiotics over the past 60 years, bacteria have responded to the deluge with the propagation of progeny no longer susceptible to them. While it is clear that antibiotics are pivotal in the selection of bacterial resistance, the spread of resistance genes and of resistant bacteria also contributes to the problem. Selection of resistant forms can occur during or after antimicrobial treatment; antibiotic residues can be found in the environment for long periods of time after treatment. Besides antibiotics, there is the mounting use of other agents aimed at destroying bacteria, namely the surface antibacterials now available in many household products.
http://jac.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/49/1/25?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Garrod&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1112876745878_1180&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=1&journalcode=jacinteresting