Antimicrobial Resistance: A Challenge for the Future

The global emergence of antibiotic-resistance, together with the lack of/reduced development of new antibiotic molecules, currently represents a serious public health problem as it can mean the return to a pre-antibiotic era in which infections caused by multiple-resistant pathogens are intractable. Since the beginnings, the interest of the Institutes of Microbiology, Hygiene and Public Health, and Infectious Diseases was focused on antibiotic resistance: from molecular mechanisms, through epidemiology and clinical issues, to prevention. Future perspectives include the search of new strategies and/or new compounds for prevention and control of difficult-to-treat pathogens in a multidisciplinary approach.