Antibiotics are widely considered one of the most important advances in the history of medicine. Their introduction into clinical practice during the 1940s marked a major milestone in the control of infectious diseases, and these medicines have since improved human health and prolonged life expectancy.
Today, bacterial resistance to antibiotics has become a global threat, and presents a major challenge to medicine. Antibiotics’ extensive and often indiscriminate use in medicine, veterinary clinics and agriculture has created the ideal conditions for antibiotic-resistant bacteria to emerge.
