This is the eBook version of the printed book.

This Element is an excerpt from Antibiotic Resistance: Understanding and Responding to an Emerging Crisis (9780131387737) by Karl Drlica and David S. Perlin. Available in print and digital formats.

The truth behind the headlines: What antibiotic resistance is, why it’s growing, and what this means to human health.

As a global community, we have not considered antibiotics as a resource to be actively protected. Consequently, we use antibiotics in ways that directly lead to resistance. Changing those ways requires an understanding of antibiotic principles. We begin with a brief description of MRSA to illustrate a bacterial-based health problem....