Quand le miracle antibiotique vire au cauchemar

Abstract

Antibiotics have been a true miracle. Would it end in a nightmare? Possibly. Since 1941, the antibiotic treatment of bacterial infections has been a revolution. The golden age lasted half a century, a period during which infectious diseases were considered definitely defeated. And although from the beginning some kind of bacterial resistance was observed, a strong long-lasting belief was that continuous innovation and invention of new molecules would keep providing a step ahead in the war waged between the human and microbes. For twenty years the resistances became each year a greater concern. Having first hit the hospital, they now affect the community. New effective antibiotics are scarce, and innovation once thought endless, stopped. Today, to escape the nightmare of a return to the pre-antibiotic era, we must find a way to curb the spread of resistant bacteria, change radically our irresponsible squander of antibiotics, and give ways to new treatments effective against future resistant pathogens. These topics are developed in the present paper dealing with the real risk that these 20th century wonder of the medical science, become an object of memory.