Resistant bacteria remain public health threat

While new antimicrobial agents are in the pipeline, judicious use of currently available antibiotics continues to be a strong recommendation.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. May 19, 2003.

Washington -- The threat of severe acute respiratory syndrome has been this year's public health headline grabber, causing fear and panic across the globe.

Still, public health experts point out that other threats continue, for the most part, below the general public's radar screen. And the danger posed by some of these threats, specifically that of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, are viewed as more insidious than many of the spotlight items.

There have been one or two infectious diseases that have emerged or reemerged every year for at least the past 10 years, noted Neil Fishman, MD, director of the Antimicrobial Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia. He named the hantavirus, the West Nile virus, and mad cow disease as examples. "We've dealt with them," he said. "But antimicrobial resistance has been around for over 60 years, and we really haven't gotten a handle on it yet."

Dr. Fishman was among a panel of infectious disease experts at an April 30 press briefing at the New York Academy of Sciences. The briefing was sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists.

Although the alarm over antibiotic-resistant bacteria has been sounded in the past, recent studies indicate that physicians are still inappropriately prescribing antibiotics, often relying on broad-spectrum antibiotics when there is little clinical rationale for their use.