Antimicrobial resistance - a challenge for public health.

Penicillin, the first antibiotic introduced into clinical practice opened a new era in medicine. The 'golden age' of antibiotic discoveries in the 1950s, 60s and 70s significantly helped our fight against bacterial infections. In parallel with the introduction of new drugs, resistance strains were identified. This was, however, neglected because of the belief that pharmaceutical companies would continuously supply us with new products. In contrary, a pipeline of new antibiotics slowly dried out and in the 1980s we realized that the proportion of resistant bacteria was increasing faster than the supply of new antibiotics. New mechanisms of resistance emerged and multidrug and pandrug resistant bacterial strains started to spread globally. Antimicrobial resistance is recognized now as one of the greatest threats to public health worldwide. The WHO and EU as well as national agencies are calling for actions which should be immediately undertaken if we do not want to lose the battle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]