In other words, it is "resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial medicine to which it was previously sensitive" (WHO, 2011). According to WHO (2011), more than 440,000 new cases of multidrug resistant tuberculosis emerge every year, resulting significant morbidity and mortality (David et al, 2008). To date, antibiotic resistance has been reported in more than 64 countries (WHO, 2011). Antibiotic resistance occurs due to genetic alteration of the organism and transferring of the altered genes between the organisms.
The transfer can occur through transduction, conjugation or transformation. Antibiotic resistance is a major public health challenge globally because; resistant microorganisms fail to respond to medical therapy and result in prolonged illness and sometimes death. It hampers the control of infectious diseases. According to WHO (2011), "many infectious diseases risk becoming uncontrollable and could derail the progress made towards reaching the targets of the health-related United Nations Millennium Development Goals set for 2015.
" Other than these, antibiotic resistance also contributes to increased cost to health care and jeopardizes various health gains to the society. In this research article, various strategies to prevent emergence of antibiotic resistance will be discussed through review of suitable literature. The article will also discuss about causes and mechanism of antibiotic resistance and consequences of antibiotic resistance. Literature review According to Williams and Sefton (1999), prevention of antibiotics resistance consists of mainly 2 parts, one is prevention of acquisition of strains that are antibiotics resistent and interruption of the various mechanisms by which antibiotic resistant organisms can spread from person to person.
Antibiotic resistance mainly occurs due to use of antibiotics both in humans and animals. The greater the duration of exposure of the antibiotic, the greater is the risk of development of resistance to that particular antibiotic. The resistance occurs irrespective of the severity of the need to administer antibiotics. Thus antibiotic resistance is a major problems for clinicians. Antibiotics are often used for rearing animals for consumption purpose and this is a significant cause for antibiotic resistance.
As far as use in humans is concerned, these drugs are administered to patients for both necessary and unnecessary causes and this contributes to drug resistance. In several countries, antibiotics are available over the counter and patients use them without medical advice. According to Costelloe et al (2010), even one single dose of antibiotic can contribute to resistance to that antibiotic upto one year. Arnols and Straus (2005) opined that inappropriate antibiotic prescription is the most common cause of antibiotic resistance and this can occur when the patient insists on antibiotics, when the physician prescribes antibiotics either for caution against medical legal issues, or because he has not time to explain why antibiotics must not be administered or the physician prescribes the antibiotics because of poor judgement regarding the cause of infection.
According to a study by McNulty et al (2007), 33 percent of individuals feel that antibiotics have treated their common cold effectively. With such ignorance both from public and professional side, erratic prescription and intake of antibiotics
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