Antibiotics and similar drugs, together called antimicrobial agents, have been used for the last 70 years to treat patients who have infectious diseases. Since the 1940s, these drugs have greatly reduced illness and death from infectious diseases. Antibiotic use has been beneficial and, when prescribed and taken correctly, their value in patient care is enormous. However, these drugs have been used so widely and for so long that the infectious organisms the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted to them, making the drugs less effective. People infected with antimicrobial-resistant organisms are more likely to have longer, more expensive hospital stays, and may be more likely to die as a result of the infection.
FAQs
Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms and C. difficile
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
Patient Safety & Prevention
Reporting
Recommendations & Guidance
Health Care-Associated Infections
Disease Call List –August 2012
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