Why new antibiotics are not obviously useful now

Abstract

For several years, the threat of antibiotic resistance and its health cost has dramatically risen and various alarming figures have been proposed to illustrate the mortality due to antibiotic resistance. However, predictions concerning different living beings are doomed to failure, as theorised in Alice's 'living croquet' theory. Actors of antibiotic resistance are the doctors, the patient and the bacteria. Considering that animals and the environment are involved, future disasters are unpredictable. Here we evaluate in a rational manner the reliability of scientific sources showing increasing resistance to antibiotics or increasing mortality related to antibiotic resistance, and we finally consider antibiotic resources to face the situation.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Mortality; Rescue antibiotics.