2006, Vol 1 No 2, Article 10 Drug Resistance
Aijaz Ahmad Banday INTRODUCTION The most serious current problem in relation to the use of anti microbial drugs in the control of infectious diseases is the increasing frequency with which bacterial resistance to some of these substances has developed. In practice this means that the treatment of specific infection with an antibiotic agent known to be potentially active against a particular microbial species may be ineffective when used for the treatment of certain outbreaks of that infection. HOW DRUG RESISTANCE IS DEVELOPING Detailed
investigations have revealed that the property of multiple drug
resistance can be transferred from the resistant strains of
Escherechia to Shigella in the intestinal tract of the patients as
well as in vitro under laboratory conditions. Further investigations
have shown that the transfer of multiple drug resistance can take
place among the majority of genera of family Enterobacteraciae as
well as in certain other genera. These observations as well as
epidemiological aspects of this problem have lead to world wide
investigations in relation to the control of infectious diseases in
animals and man by anti microbial drugs. It is now known that within
the family Enterobacteraciae the multiple drug resistance may be
transferred by conjugation from one bacterium to another by means of
episomes known as R factors (resistance factors) in association with
resistance transfer factor s (RTF). WHAT TO EXPECT AND HOW TO HANDLE IT This newly
acquired knowledge means the original assumption that drug
resistance developed in bacterial population by a natural process of
selection over a prolonged period of time and only in the presence
of the particular antibiotic, is not the sole method by which the
resistance can occur. These latest investigations have shown that by
means of R factors and RTF microbial resistance to drugs may also
develop quickly and can be transferred from one bacterial species to
another and the process can continue in the absence of the
antibiotic from the microbial environment. Editors Note:
This brief yet visionary article had
been written by the author almost two decades back. Tragically Dr.
Aijaz Ahmad Banday died at a very young age. The loss of a scientist
of repute, as the author was, is irreparable. Kashvet and VetScan
pay tribute to this son of the soil and feel honored by including
this article of his in the issue. |
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