The Causes of the Development of Antimicrobial Resistance Essay

The Causes of the Development of Antimicrobial Resistance - Essay Example The former class includes antibiotics like the ÃŽ ² lactams (penicillin, penicillin derived antibiotics, carbapenems, cephalosporins, vancomycin) and most aminoglycosides especially against Gram-negative organisms but not against Gram-positive and anaerobic micro-organisms. The other class of antibiotics, the microbiostatic, include antibiotics that prevent the micro-organisms from multiplying by interfering with their protein production, DNA replication, and other metabolic pathways. Tetracycline, sulphonamides, trimethoprim and most microbicidal antibiotics at low concentration are few examples of the microbistatic group. The first antibiotic to be discovered was penicillin derived from the Penicillium mold. It was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928. Later on, the development of synthetic penicillin broadened the spectrum of activity and at the same time enhanced the efficacy of these drugs. However, with the emergence of resistant bacterial strains, the usefulness of penicillins have been limited in the recent years. Methicillin is a narrow spectrum ÃŽ ² lactam antibiotic which was developed in 1959 by Beechman in order to treat penicillin-resistant Gram-positive organisms like Staphylococcus aureus.  In the 1960s and 1970s, it proved so efficient against Staphylococcus aureus that it was extensively used and even sprayed in the wards of hospitals to control Staphylococcal infection in newborn. ( Elek SD, Fleming PC. A new technique for the control of hospital cross infection. Lancet 1960;ii:569–72). Methicillin-resistant isolates though present were not notably troublesome because of the emergence and prevalence of microbial resistance especially MRSA( methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in hospitals. The major antibiotic-resistant pathogen associated with nosocomial infection.