Overview on Mechanisms of Antibacterial Resistance

Currently antimicrobial resistance among bacteria, viruses, parasites, and other disease-causing organisms is a serious threat to infectious disease management globally. Antibiotics were discovered in the middle of the nineteenth century and brought down the threat of infectious diseases which had devastated the human race. However, soon after the discovery of penicillin in 1940, a number of treatment failures and occurrence of some bacteria such as staphylococci which were no longer sensitive to penicillin started being noticed. Increasing prevalence of resistance has been reported in many pathogens over the years in different regions of the world including developing countries. This has been attributed to changing microbial characteristics, selective pressures of antimicrobial use, and societal and technological changes that enhance the development and transmission of drug-resistant organisms. Although antimicrobial resistance is a natural biological phenomenon, it often enhanced as a consequence of infectious agents’ adaptation to exposure to antimicrobials used in humans or agriculture and the widespread use of disinfectants at the farm and the household levels. It is now accepted that antimicrobial use is the single most important factor responsible for increased antimicrobial resistance. The development of antimicrobial resistance by bacteria is inevitable and is considered as a major problem in the treatment of bacterial infections in the hospital and in the community. Despite efforts to develop new therapeutics that interact with new targets, resistance has been reported even to these agents. Searching for new therapeutic possibilities that exist for treatment of bacterial infections and how bacteria become resistant to this therapeutics with combating mechanisms are expected from different stake holders.