Antibiotics/antibacterial drug use, their marketing and promotion during the post-antibiotic golden age and their role in emergence of bacterial resistance

Abstract

During the post-antibiotic golden age, it has seen a massive antibiotic/antibacterial production and an increase in irrational use of these few existing drugs in the medical and veterinary practice, food industries, tissue cultures, agriculture and commercial ethanol production globally. The irrational drug use has been further exacerbated by the increased marketing and promotion of these drugs by the pharmaceutical companies thus increasing their accessibility in the public and hence their improper use. The lack of production and introduction of the newer and effective antibiotic/antibacterial drugs in clinical practice in the post-antibiotic golden age has seen an increase in the emergence of the resistant pathogenic bacterial infections creating a significant problem in the global health of humankind. The massive productions of the antibiotic/antibacterial drugs have contributed to the poor disposal of these drugs and hence many of them are discharged in various water bodies contributing to the environmental antibiotic/antibacterial drug pollution. In the environment, these drugs exert pressure on the environmental bacteria by destroying useful bacteria that are responsible for the recycling of the organic matter and as well as promoting the selection of the resistant pathogenic bacteria that can spread in human and animal population thus causing an increase in the observed bacterial disease burden and hence a significant global public health problem. The resistant bacterial diseases lead to the high cost, increased occurrence of adverse drug reactions, prolonged hospitalization, the exposure to the second- and third-line drugs like in MDR-TB and XDR-TB that leads to toxicity and deaths as well as the increased poor production in agriculture and animal industry and commercial ethanol production.

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Bbosa, G. , Mwebaza, N. , Odda, J. , Kyegombe, D. and Ntale, M. (2014) Antibiotics/antibacterial drug use, their marketing and promotion during the post-antibiotic golden age and their role in emergence of bacterial resistance. Health, 6, 410-425. doi: 10.4236/health.2014.65059.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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