Prevalence, consequences, and solutions.

Since the early development of antibiotics, antimicrobial resistance has continued to emerge as a formidable adversary in the fight against infectious disease. Once an issue confined to hospitals, antibiotic resistance has now invaded communities, targeting not only the immunocompromised patient, but also those who are immunocompetent. To stem this crisis, researchers have developed more powerful and more costly antibiotics, which have only complicated the resistance problem. Education of the patient and the prescriber, as well as antimicrobial stewardship programs, are necessary to avert a global antibiotic resistance catastrophe.