Antibiotics And Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance has been on the rise in recent years, and currently more than 23,000 people die from antibiotic resistant infections every year in the United States.1 Resistant bacteria make infections harder to treat and cost an estimated $20 billion in direct healthcare costs in the US.1 Antibiotic resistance is a natural product of evolution; however, humans have helped to accelerate the process over the last century. Over prescription and use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in both developing and developed nations, poor patient follow through, and preventative use in livestock have all contributed to the issue. Without new treatments, the results of such accelerated resistance could be as profound as the inability to treat common …show more content…
This increase in resistance has spread rapidly and has far reaching effects. For instance, quinolone antibiotics are not found in nature; yet, three decades after their deployment against infections, resistance to this class of antibiotics can be found across the globe.2 Such resistance has deleterious effects on the quality and cost of health care available to people in both developed and undeveloped …show more content…
Unfortunately, it is a fundamental fact of evolution that bacteria will continue to develop resistances to treatment in order to survive. Because of this, much of the current research is pursuing species-specific and narrow spectrum antibiotics and treatments.2 With the well of new with antimicrobial compounds drying up, current research on slowing or side-stepping antibiotic resistance is exploring a myriad of possibilities. This paper will focus on methods such as membrane disruption, inhibition, and bacteriophages that are being used alone or together to target resistant