Antibiotic Paradox Research Articles

The antibiotic paradox: why companies can't afford to create life-saving drugs.

Paratek Pharmaceuticals successfully brought a new antibiotic to the market. So why is the company’s long-term survival in question? Paratek Pharmaceuticals successfully brought a new antibiotic to the market. So why is the company’s long-term survival in question?

The paradoxes of antibiotic resistance

The antibiotic paradox was a phrase first used by Stuart B. Levy in 1992 but it seems more relevant than ever now because everything about these drugs is indeed paradoxical. It was seen as a miracle drug during the whole of the second half of the xxth century and its unrestricted and uncontrolled use led bacteria to develop forms of resistance with the result that today antibiotics are failing in a dangerously increasing number of cases. This usage has led to a situation which some compare to...

Resistance to Anti-Infective Drugs and the Threat to Public Health

Increasing resistance of pathogens to anti-infective drugs is an urgent public health problem that must be addressed through more prudent use of these drugs in human medicine and in animal husbandry, agriculture, and aquaculture.

Where are all the new antibiotics? The new antibiotic paradox

At the beginning of the 20th century, illnesses caused by infectious agents ranked among the most common causes of death in North America and, indeed, worldwide. By the middle of the century, dramatic advances in the diagnosis, management and prevention of infectious diseases had occurred, and hopes were raised that many infectious diseases would be eliminated by the end of the 20th century. Much of this success in the management of infectious diseases was related to a continuous new armamentarium of antibiotics. The discovery of penicillin by Fleming in 1928 followed by the discovery and clinical use of sulphonamides in the 1930s heralded the age of modern antibiotherapy (1,2). Penicillin came into widespread use during the early 1940s. By the 1950s, the ′golden era′ of antibiotic development and use was well underway, and multiple new classes of antibiotics were introduced over the next two decades (Table 1) (3).

Overcoming resistance.

Overcoming resistance.

The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers (review)

The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers (review)

The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers

The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers

The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers, 2nd Edition:The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers, 2nd Edition

The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers, 2nd Edition:The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers, 2nd Edition

The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers

The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers

Book Review The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers Second edition. By Stuart B. Levy. 353 pp., illustrated. Cambridge, Mass., Perseus Publishing, 2002. $17.50. 0-7382-0440-4

Book Review The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers Second edition. By Stuart B. Levy. 353 pp., illustrated. Cambridge, Mass., Perseus Publishing, 2002. $17.50. 0-7382-0440-4

The antibiotic paradox: how the misuse of antibiotics destroys their curative powers

In this totally revised and updated edition of the classic primer on the misuse of antibiotics, Dr. Stuart Levy reveals how our cavalier and naive attitude about the power of antibiotics can have -and already has had-dire consequences. He explains that we are currently witnessing a massive evolutionary change in bacteria. This build-up of new antibiotic-resistant bacteria in individuals and the environment, mixed with our overzealous use of antibiotic soaps and the unregulated dispensing of antibiotics worldwide, is leading us into a dangerous territory where our miracle drugs will no longer help.

Stuart B. Levy: The antibiotic paradox. How the misuse of antibiotics destroys their curative powers, 2nd edn.

Stuart B. Levy: The antibiotic paradox. How the misuse of antibiotics destroys their curative powers, 2nd edn.

Reviews and Notes: Infectious Disease Medicine: The Antibiotic Paradox: How Miracle Drugs Are Destroying the Miracle

Literature of Medicine1 September 1993Reviews and Notes: Infectious Disease Medicine: The Antibiotic Paradox: How Miracle Drugs Are Destroying the MiracleGerard J. Sheehan, MDGerard J. Sheehan, MDUniversity of Alberta Hospitals, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2B7Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-119-5-199309010-00057 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail The Antibiotic Paradox: How Miracle Drugs Are Destroying the MiracleFirst edition. Stuart B. Levy. 263 pages. New York: Plenum Press; 1992. $24.95.A paradox exists in modern medicine that no matter how much is achieved, more is expected. Many people believe that they will be immune from significant illness until they reach a ripe old age and that medicine has an answer for any troublesome illness. Such motivations may drive the patient with a viral upper respiratory tract infection to overtly or covertly demand antibiotics of their primary caregiver. Physicians frequently acquiesce in this folly, sometimes from habit, often to keep ... Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: University of Alberta Hospitals, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2B7 PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Metrics 1 September 1993Volume 119, Issue 5Page: 447KeywordsAntibiotic resistanceAntibioticsCaregiversHabitsInfectious diseasesInpatientsMedical educationMotivationSurgeryUpper respiratory tract infections ePublished: 15 August 2000 Issue Published: 1 September 1993 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 1993 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...

The Antibiotic Paradox: How Miracle Drugs Are Destroying the Miracle

"Mr. Williams came in last night. It looks like secondary staph pneumonia, with septic emboli. The ward team has him on vancomycin, ceftriaxone, ampicillin-sulbactam, and ciprofloxacin until the cultures are back." And so it goes: patient after patient on high-dose, multidrug therapy, for infections caused by progressively resistant microorganisms. Seeing this and similar patients on a daily basis brings home the truth of<i>The Antibiotic Paradox</i>. Dr Stuart B. Levy's new book describes the "antibiotic age," from the use of penicillin in survivors of the Coconut Grove fire in 1942, through the development of antimicrobial resistance, to a frightening future in which antibiotics as we know them today may be obsolete. Dr Levy is an internationally recognized expert on resistance and an outspoken critic of the widespread misuse of antibiotics. He is president of the Alliance for Prudent Use of Antibiotics, an international organization founded in 1981 to collect and

The antibiotic paradox: how miracle drugs are destroying the miracle

From Tragedy the Antibiotic Age is Born Medicine Comes of Age The Disease and the Cure: The Microscopic World of Bacteria and Antibiotics Antibiotic Resistance: Microbial Adaptation and Evolution The Antibiotic Myth Antibiotics, Animals, and the Resistance Gene Pool Antibiotic Use in Agriculture, Aquaculture, Pets and Minor Animal Species: Further Ecologic Considerations Future Prospects: New Advances Against Potential Disaster The Individual and Antibiotic Resistance Antibiotic Resistance: A Societal Issue at Local, National, and International Levels.