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The rise of modern antimicrobial drug resistance has evolved into a pressing global health crisis, challenging the very foundation of our ability to combat infectious diseases. The overuse and accessibility of antibiotics, particularly in emerging nations, have given rise to resilient'superbugs,'rendering common medications ineffective. This escalating challenge poses a significant threat to public health and leads to heightened healthcare costs, prolonged patient stays, and increased mortality rates. As communities grapple with the urgent need for a coordinated response, a comprehensive understanding of antimicrobial drug resistance and innovative strategies becomes paramount. Frontiers in Combating Antibacterial Resistance: Current Perspectives and Future Horizons is meticulously crafted for academic scholars, researchers, and healthcare professionals. It addresses this critical issue head-on and serves as a beacon of knowledge and a solution-oriented guide. With a focus on elucidating the mechanisms behind antimicrobial drug resistance and exploring emerging therapeutic targets, the book presents an in-depth analysis of the problem. It spans environmental, genetic, and climatic factors influencing resistance, delving into cutting-edge technologies and sustainable strategies for prevention. By offering a holistic view of the issue and proposing evidence-based solutions, the book is an indispensable resource for those seeking to navigate the complex landscape of antimicrobial drug resistance. Frontiers in Combating Antibacterial Resistance: Current Perspectives and Future Horizons aims to raise awareness, guide policy decisions, and foster international cooperation. It is a comprehensive educational tool, equipping students, researchers, and healthcare professionals with the knowledge needed to tackle this global menace. Ultimately, the book's contribution lies in understanding the complexities of antimicrobial drug resistance and empowering individuals and communities to enact meaningful change in the face of this formidable challenge.

Although antibiotics are among the most widely used pharmaceuticals, they are also often inappropriately and over-prescribed. Indeed there are increasing predictions that unless we moderate our use of these drugs, bacterial resistance will eventually render them useless. As there are no serious contenders to take the place of antibiotics, including a failure to find new classes of these drugs, it is essential for modern medicine that their efficacy is preserved. Part of the Oxford Infectious Disease Library, this pocketbook is designed to help medical trainees, general prescribers, healthcare workers and students of all biological and medical sciences to understand how antibiotics work, to demonstrate where they might be most appropriate and to make clear the threat of antibiotic resistance. In particular, it will highlight the problems currently seen with bacteria such as MRSA and describe the circumstances leading to their persistence.

Antibiotics will soon no longer be able to cure common illnesses such as strep throat, sinusitis and middle ear infections as they have done for the last 60 years. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are increasing at a much faster rate than new antibiotics to treat them are being developed. The prescription of antibiotics for viral illnesses is a key cause of increasing bacterial resistance. Despite this fact, many children continue to receive antibiotics unnecessarily for the treatment of viral upper respiratory tract infections. Why do American physicians continue to prescribe inappropriately given the high social stakes of this action? The answer appears to lie in the fundamentally social nature of medical practice: physicians do not prescribe as the result of a clinical algorithm but prescribe in the context of a conversation with a parent and a child. Thus, physicians have a classic social dilemma which pits individual parents and children against a greater social good. This book examines parent-physician conversations in detail, showing how parents put pressure on doctors in largely covert ways, for instance in specific communication practices for explaining why they have brought their child to the doctor or answering a history-taking question. This book also shows how physicians yield to this seemingly subtle pressure evidencing that apparently small differences in wording have important consequences for diagnosis and treatment recommendations. Following parents use of these interactional practices, physicians are more likely to make concessions, alter their diagnosis or alter their treatment recommendation. This book also shows how small changes in the way physicians present their findings and recommendations can decrease parent pressure for antibiotics. This book carefully documents the important and observable link between micro social interaction and macro public health domains.