Antibiotic Resistance

Microbes are known to exist since antiquity. Many antibiotics are obtained from
soil microbes (fungi and bacteria) and have been present in the environment long
before humans started using them in clinical settings. Microorganisms have been
naturally exposed to these bioactive products during evolution. Given the billions
of years of co-evolution of antibiotic producing and antibiotic resistant organisms.
Paul Ehrlich hypothesized “Magic Bullets” against microbes in 1900 and Salvarsan
was the first antimicrobial agent used against syphilis in 1906 (Heynick, 2009).
Domagk (1933) used prontosil and its metabolite sulphanilamide in infections
(Otten, 1986). The Penicillin was discovered in 1928 and put to clinical use in 1940.
Therefore, problem of antibiotic resistance (AR) is an ever-increasing menace to
mankind (Petri, 2011).
Antibiotic Resistance is an ever increasing public health problem which has evolved
from environmental mixing of genes and is further aggravated by unrestricted
use of antibiotics in livestock husbandry and poultry farming. Inappropriate
use of antibiotics at all levels of health care delivery; poor sanitation and lack of
awareness of seriousness of the AR are increasingly realized as modifiable factors.