The antibiotic paradox

Abstract

Antibiotics are one of the great medical advances of all time, but their success has brought advanced warnings of their demise due to over-use. The story of antibiotics is full of paradoxes, from over-reliance leading to poor infection control practice, to over-use leading to resistance and spread of new resistant clones. These clones don't necessarily just replace susceptible clones but might bring additional burden of infection, leading to a net increase in numbers of infections. This chapter will investigate the implications of this for the control of healthcare acquired infection, with several examples of common hospital pathogens, showing not only increased prevelance but also virulence in some cases.