Multiple-Antibiotic-Resistant Pathogenic Bacteria -- A Report on the Rockefeller University Workshop

Abstract

Last year, a small group of scientists, physicians, and public health experts gathered at Rockefeller University for a one-day workshop to discuss the accelerating spread of bacterial pathogens resistant to antimicrobial agents and whether multiresistant bacteria pose a threat to public health in the United States. This report is based on the conclusions of that workshop. After a half-century of virtually complete control over microbial disease in the developed countries, the 1990s have brought a worldwide resurgence of bacterial and viral diseases 1 . An important factor in this phenomenon is the acquisition of antibiotic-resistance genes by virtually all major bacterial. © 1994, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.