Antimicrobial Resistance in Indonesia: Prevalence, determinants and genetic basis

In the past 65 years, antibiotics have been critical in the fi ght against infectious diseases caused by bacteria. Penicillin was discovered in 1928, but it was only by the end of the 1940s that it became generally available. This was soon followed by the discovery and development of new antibiotics, including chloramphenicol and tetracycline. However, shortly after the introduction of each of these new antibiotics, resistance was detected. Nowadays, disease-causing microbes that have become resistant to antibiotic drug therapy are a major health problem worldwide, both in hospitals and the communit. Infections with resistant bacteria increase the health care costs, length of hospital stay, and mortality, compared to infections caused by bacteria that are susceptible to standard antibiotics. The problem is particularly pressing in developing countries, where the infectious disease burden is high and cost constraints restrict the application of newer, often more expensive and more toxic agents.