In recent years there has been a lot of news about the impending antibiotics crisis, brought to a head by renewed awareness that we are running out of drugs to treat evolving superbugs, and with the startling revelation following the NDM-1 discovery, that microorganisms are also capable of sharing bits of themselves with each other to thwart even our most powerful last-line antibiotics.
Is this the beginning of the end of antibiotics, as some scientists are predicting, are we about to return to a pre-penicillin world where a common bacterial infection could be a death sentence? Or are we just at the cusp of a new wave of inventions that will spur a new generation of drugs that will keep us ahead of the evolutionary race against harmful microorganisms?
This article does not answer these questions, but attempts to present a digest of key facts and recent developments to illuminate the issues around them.
It starts with a summary of what we mean by antibiotics and what they can and cannot treat. It then goes on to explain how antibiotic resistance arises, including the problem of multiple drug resistance, and why many experts say widespread and misguided use is to blame for the accelerated rate at which resistance has become a global problem, as has the dearth in new drug developments. It then describes some of the things researchers and organizations say we can do to to slow down the development of superbugs, and ends with a round up of some surprising new directions that could offer alternative solutions.