Guidelines for the use of antimicrobial agents to minimise development of resistance

There is currently worldwide concern about the problems of antimicrobial resistance. A number of important bodies such as the World Health Organisation and the British House of Lords have identified the reasons for the emergence of resistance to antimicrobial agents and the preventive measures which need to be urgently implemented to curb the spread of resistant organisms. The reasons for the emergence of resistant organisms are not difficult to find. During the past half-century, since the discovery of penicillin by Fleming, people in both the developing and the developed world have accepted antimicrobial agents as a fundamental right, not only to demand at the first sign of a trivial infection but also to self prescribe with readily available, cheap antimicrobial agents. Such unbridled abuse of antimicrobial agents not only in man but also in animals could lead down a slippery slope to an era where the microbe may rule supreme once again. Indeed some authorities are forecasting a 'post-antibiotic era' (as opposed to the pre-antibiotic era before the discovery of penicillin) in the foreseeable future when many infectious diseases will once again be almost impossible to treat.