Confronting antibiotic resistance
With the tremendous progress that has been made in discovering ever more and better therapeutic agents, it looked as if bacterial diseases were under complete control. Unfortunately this has not proved to be the case because almost all types of bacteria very rapidly develop resistance to drugs. For instance, in many London hospitals 50 to 80 per cent of all staphylococcal infections are found to be resistant to penicillin.
The fascinating problem of bacterial resistance has been discussed this week at a meeting of scientists from all over the world at the Ciba Foundation in London. Apart from the immediate practical aspects 鈥� and these are, of course, very serious in terms of patient welfare 鈥� this subject touches on all the most interesting and disturbing genetic and adaptive processes of cells.
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However, the foundation has reported some positive news. In many cases of patient infection a practical solution has been found, based on sound theoretical work, by using a number of drugs in combination right from the start of the treatment, since the bacterial defences cannot easily adapt themselves to many different toxic agents assaulting them all at once. On the other hand, if the different drugs are given successively rather than in combination, then the invading organism has the opportunity to adapt and change step by step.
The great success which has been achieved against tuberculosis and other bacterial diseases, and which has brought about the emptying of the western world鈥檚 sanatoria, is due to the fortunate circumstance that several highly active chemotherapeutic agents were all discovered within a short period of time. It is their use in combination which is so effective. A similar approach to the use of antibiotics should now be widely applied to combat the rapid growth in drug resistance that bacteria are now exhibiting.
From The New 杏吧原创, 4 April 1957