Antibiotic Resistance and Implications for the Appropriate Use of Antimicrobial Agents

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance is a major public health threat associated with increased morbidity and mortality as well as enormous healthcare costs that are attributed to longer hospital stays, which require multiple antimicrobial therapies. After recognizing antimicrobial resistance as a phenomenon and the need for a response, the Institute of Medicine published a report in 1988, Antimicrobial Resistance: Issues and Options [1]. The report asserted that antimicrobial resistance was accumulating and accelerating while the tools for combating it were decreasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]