The antibiotics commonly used to treat serious bacterial infections likely will become ineffective within the next 10 years. Unfortunately, all major infectious diseases are slowly becoming resistant to existing antibiotics. For example, in 1970, all Salmonella strains were susceptible to antibiotics available at that time, but now many Salmonella strains are resistant to 80 percent of those same antibiotics. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics occurs when bacteria that are normally killed by an antibiotic mutate into a resistant strain. This results in infections that might not be treatable with antibiotics available today.
Several factors play a role in the development of bacterial resistance.
One is the overuse of antibiotics. Antibiotics work only on bacteria, so they will not help with viral infections such as colds and the flu. Using antibiotics to treat colds and flu does not hasten the resolution of illness, but provides the bacteria present in the body the opportunity to develop resistance. A second factor involved in antibiotic resistance is lack of compliance when an antibiotic is ordered. Compliance failures occur when antibiotic treatment is stopped early because the patient feels better or is interrupted due to forgetting to take doses.