The Singapore Family Physician

Back to issue Vol 40 No. 1 - Infectious Disease

Antimicrobial Resistance: Community and Hospital

Farhad Fakhrudin Vasanwala
Hsu Li Yang
Goh Lee Gan
The Singapore Family Physician Vol 40 No 1 - Infectious Disease
11 - 17
1 March 2014
0377-5305
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) increases the morbidity, mortality and costs of treating infectious diseases. (Hawkey and Jones, 2009)1. The threat from resistant organisms is now a global problem, both in the hospital and to some extent in the community. The key drivers are: medical care complexity; widespread antimicrobial use in animal husbandry; antimicrobial contaminated food distribution; international travel, and food distribution of food contaminated with multidrug resistant organism. Strategies for infection control are: good understanding of what needs to be done, consistent application of infection control measures, use of “search and destroy” techniques; and effective antimicrobial stewardship. This paper reviews the current issues and potential solutions.