Threats of antibiotic resistance: An obliged reappraisal
Document Type
Response or Comment
Publication Date
5-24-2021
Publication Source
International Microbiology
Volume
24
Publisher
Springer Nature
Inclusive pages
499-506
ISBN/ISSN
1618-1905
Abstract
We are living in a society of fear, where the objectivity in estimating risks is distorted by the media and the interested parties. During more than half of a century, the feeling of antibiotic resistance as an apocalyptic phenomenon able to push our society to the high mortality rates caused by infectious diseases in the dark pre-antibiotic ages has been steadily rising. However, at the current status of modern medicine, at least in the high-medium income countries, mortality by lack of efficacy of the antibiotic armamentarium in the therapy of infections is a problem, but not a catastrophe. The threat of antibiotic resistance has many other aspects than failures of therapy in the individual patient. Among them, the increase in the frequency of severe and potentially lethal infections, as bacteremia, the population biology alterations of the healthy microbiota, the global acceleration of bacterial evolution by selecting natural genetic tools mediating microbial interactions, and, most importantly, by modifying the equilibrium and composition of environmental microbial communities. All these threats have huge implications for human health as members of a Biosphere entirely rooted in a menaced microbiosphere.
Keywords
Antibiotic resistance, Society of fear, One Health, Global Health, Risk evaluation
Disciplines
Bacteria | Biology
eCommons Citation
Baquero, Fernando, "Threats of antibiotic resistance: An obliged reappraisal" (2021). Research on Antimicrobial Resistance. 5.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/amr_research/5
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