Combating Antimicrobial Resistance

Download or read book The Resistance Phenomenon in Microbes and Infectious Disease Vectors written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-03-26 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The resistance topic is timely given current events. The emergence of mysterious new diseases, such as SARS, and the looming threat of bioterrorist attacks remind us of how vulnerable we can be to infectious agents. With advances in medical technologies, we have tamed many former microbial foes, yet with few new antimicrobial agents and vaccines in the pipeline, and rapidly increasing drug resistance among infectious microbes, we teeter on the brink of loosing the upperhand in our ongoing struggle against these foes, old and new. The Resistance Phenomenon in Microbes and Infectious Disease Vectors examines our understanding of the relationships among microbes, disease vectors, and human hosts, and explores possible new strategies for meeting the challenge of resistance.