Introduction: Drug-resistant infectious agents

Drug-resistant infectious agents: Various infectious diseases are becoming resistant to antibiotics and other drugs. The society-wide overuse of antibiotics tends to cause stronger bacterial strains to develop more widely. Newer antibiotics have been developed and are often called "second line of defence" antibiotics, to be used if the disease is resistant to the main line of defence. Drug-resistant strains are emerging of tuberculosis, malaria, and nosocomial infections (hospital-related infections).

Drug-resistant infectious agents: Drug-resistant infectious agents – those that are not killed or inhibited by antimicrobial compounds – are an increasingly important public health concern. Tuberculosis, gonorrhea, malaria and childhood ear infections are just a few of the diseases that have become more difficult to treat due to the emergence of drug-resistant pathogens. Antimicrobial resistance is becoming a factor in virtually all hospital-acquired (nosocomial) infections. Many physicians are concerned that several bacterial infections soon may be untreatable.¹

Conditions list: The list of conditions in the Drug-resistant infectious agents group includes:

• chloroquine-resistant malaria - see malaria
• Drug-resistant Streptococcus Pneumoniae Disease
• multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) (type of Tuberculosis) - newer strains of tuberculosis that are resistant to many drugs.
• Antibiotic-resistant nosocomial infections (type of Nosocomial infections) - infections in hospitals that are becoming resistant; see nosocomial infections
  • methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (type of Nosocomial infections)
  • vancomycin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (type of Nosocomial infections)
  • vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) (type of Nosocomial infections)

Statistics and Drug-resistant infectious agents: Various sources and calculations are available in statistics about Drug-resistant infectious agents, and you can also research other medical statistics in our statistics center.

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