Antibiotic resistance is an emerging threat to public health: an urgent call to action at the Antimicrobial Resistance Summit 2011

Abstract

The introduction of antibiotics was one of the most important developments in modern medicine. Their availability has facilitated increasingly complex care and, not surprisingly, microbial resistance to antibiotics has been identified as one of the greatest threats to human health. A return to the "preantibiotic era" would render many routine infections untreatable and would seriously affect current practice in surgery, intensive care, organ transplantation, neonatology and cancer services through major increases in morbidity and mortality. The time to act is now - before we lose these "miracle" drugs for good.