Future Prospects

Abstract

The past decade has seen the unprecedented rise in the spread of antibiotic resistance determinants among disease-causing bacteria. These resistant bacteria have colonized ecological niches in countries worldwide, making all geographic areas vulnerable to the problem of ineffective therapy for bacterial diseases. This situation raises the staggering possibility that a time will come when antibiotics as a mode of therapy will be only a fact of historic interest. While scientific advances may eventually offer a way to replace antibiotics with other means of treating disease, we would rather make that decision ourselves instead of being forced to abandon antibiotic therapies because they have become useless. Despite innovative work on vaccines and other methods of increasing our body’s defenses against infection, most scientists and physicians cannot imagine a future without antibiotics.