Abstract

Early in the twentieth century, the first microbe-cidal and -static drugs were identified. The clinical use of antibiotics was initiated mid-twentieth century after the discovery of penicillin. However and quite soon, it was documented that microbes broadly developed resistance to antimicrobial drugs. This prompted research into the discovery of new antibiotics or research aimed to develop prophylactic and therapeutic approaches differing from the straightforward use of antibiotics. Thus began a race between drugs and microbes that has continued into modern day and has culminated in the recent detection of bacterial strains that are essentially resistant against all clinically useful antimicrobial agents. Treatments that were simple and successful in the past have now been compromised; 70 years ago penicillin could be universally used in the treatment of infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus, now penicillin is ineffective in the vast majority of staphylococcal infections. It is believed by many and accepted by most that this scenario will apply to any classical antibiotic that enters the market, effectiveness will be limited until microbes have developed a or more ways around the static or cidal effects.