[Antibiotics - In Which Fields is there Need for Action?].

For decades, antibiotics have been utilized successfully to treat infectious diseases. As part of a natural process, resistance mechanisms evolved in bacteria rendering some of these antibiotics ineffective. A significant increase in the use of antibiotics worldwide has greatly accelerated this process. As a result, treatment of many infectious diseases such as tuberculosis or gonorrhea has become increasingly difficult and nosocomial infections are causing great problems in health care systems. Many action plans and counter-measures have been developed but are seldom put into action and fail to address all problems related to antibiotic resistance. To ensure that antibiotics will remain a reliable option for treating infectious diseases, targeted action is needed in various fields.