Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria and Alternative Methods to Control Them: An Overview

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest challenges in the health system nowadays, representing a serious problem for public health. Initially, antibiotic-resistant strains were restricted to the hospital environment, but now they can be found everywhere. Globalization, excessive use of antibiotics in animal husbandry and aquaculture, use of multiple broad-spectrum agents, and lack of good antimicrobial stewardship can be listed as the factors most responsible for the spread of antibiotic resistance. The increase in the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens implies having fewer antimicrobial agents to treat infections. The estimate is that by 2050, there will be no effective antibiotic available, if no new drug is developed or discovered. This raises the need to search for alternative methods of controlling antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Considering this problem, the objective of this review is to outline the most frequent antibiotic-resistant bacteria and describe the advantageous and limitations of alternative methods that have been proposed to control them.

Keywords: MRSA; VRE; alternative therapies; antibiotic resistance; bacteriocins; phage therapy.