Antimicrobial stewardship programs.

The development of antimicrobial agents represents one of the most significant achievements in medicine during the past century. However, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance combined with the downturn in the development of new antimicrobial agents in the pharmaceutical industry poses unanticipated challenges in the effective management of infection. The issue of how we can most effectively utilize these invaluable resources, antimicrobials, in the face of infections that are ever more difficult to treat arises. This issue serves as the fundamental basis for the concept of antimicrobial stewardship, the topic of this minireview.