[ß-lactam antibiotics resistance in Latin American countries]

Ever since antimicrobial activity was observed at the end of the XIX century and antibiotics were produced on a large scale in the 40s, microorganisms have developed multiple resistance mechanisms, making treatment of infectious diseases difficult. For instance, several Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria lowered their sensitivity to ß-Lactam antibiotics as a result of their inadequate use and abuse. For this reason, microbial resistance to these drugs represents an increasing health problem in Latin America due to the emergence of drug-resistant bacterial strains. This review aims to summarize and analyze scientific literature reporting resistance to ß-lactam antibiotics in Latin America. We compiled scientific papers published during the last five years from PubMed, SciELO, and LILACS-BIREME. We found that: (i) it is common to identify resistance genes for ß-lactams in the soil and animal farms, and (ii) over 40% of strains isolated from clinical samples developed resistance against ß-lactam antibiotics.