As researchers become increasingly concerned about measuring and preserving biodiversity, microbiologist Hugh Pennington, at the University of Aberdeen, recently wrote that where you stand on biodiversity depends on where you sit. As a researcher working with some of the novel antibiotic-resistant bacteria, Pennington wrote of his lifelong efforts to fight biodiversity and to research all means...

Antibiotic resistance and associated genes are ubiquitous and ancient, with most genes that encode resistance in human pathogens having originated in bacteria from the natural environment (eg, β-lactamases and fluoroquinolones resistance genes, such as qnr). The rapid evolution and spread of "new" antibiotic resistance genes has been enhanced by modern human activity and its influence on the en...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria are rapidly spreading throughout the world. The epidemiology of multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria in patients who require chronic hemodialysis has not been previously studied. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS A prospective cohort study of an outpatient hemodialysis unit was conducted. Serial surveillanc...

There is concern that antibiotic resistance can potentially be transferred from animals to humans through the food chain. The relationship between specific antibiotic resistant bacteria and the genes they carry remains to be described. Few details are known about the ecology of antibiotic resistant genes and bacteria in food production systems, or how antibiotic resistance genes in food animals...

Antimicrobial-resistant bacteria are an emerging problem globally and are associated with increased patient morbidity and mortality. Within hospitals, antibiotic resistant bacteria continue to increase in incidence. As evidenced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Healthcare Safety Network collection of data across a large number of hospitals, resistance rates for vancomy...

Chronic urinary tract infections are often caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria. In some of these cases, prediction of the most effective antibiotic (s) may urgently be needed. This can not be achieved unless the nature and patterns of the resistance to antibiotics among the pathogenic bacteria has been described earlier. The urine samples that reached the laboratory of Shaheed Mustafa K...

Antibiotic resistance of heterotrophic bacteria isolated from the surface microlayer and subsurface water of downtown pond was determined. The levels of resistance of bacteria to various antibiotics differed considerably. It follows from the results that bacteria were most resistant to penicillin and sensitive to gentamycin, neomycin and oxytetracycline. Majority of bacterial strains were chara...