RESISTANCE TO ANTIBIOTIC AGENTS: PERSPECTIVE AND REALITY

ABSTRACT

Microorganisms have infected humans since time immemorial and in this context, we have lived through an endless war that has produced increasingly complex adaptation and selection pressure. Although antibiotics marked a new era beginning in 1928, it is interesting to mention that traces of tetracycline were found in human bone samples from ancient Sudanese Nubia dating from 350­550 AD. C (1). Paul Erlich, by his staining methods, already deduced at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, that there may be a magic bullet that acts on microorganisms to eliminate them, without affecting other cell types. This molecule is currently known as an antibiotic or antimicrobial in relation to its natural or synthetic origin. Of this interest, in 1910 the first molecule with studies in rabbits infected with syphilis to demonstrate antimicrobial activity was described (2,3).