| The introduction of antibiotics in the 1950s and 1960s revolutionised medicine, to such an extent that in 1969 the US Surgeon General famously declared: "The time has come to close the book on infectious disease". Following this initial optimism, many companies left the field. While industry dollars were spent elsewhere, bacteria became resistant to antibiotics at a rapid pace. Despite renewed efforts in antibiotic discovery, resistance is now a global threat to public health.Changing population demographics, increasing use of invasive procedures, the spread of HIV, an increasing number of immunocompromised patients and misuse of broad spectrum antibiotics have meant that new pathogens have emerged, some of which are resistant to one or several of the antibiotics normally used to treat them (1). |
