Fighting Antibiotic Resistance in Hospital-Acquired Infections: Current State and Emerging Technologies in Disease Prevention, Diagnostics and Therapy

Rising antibiotic resistance is a global threat that is projected to cause more deaths than all cancers combined by 2050. In this review, we set to summarize the current state of antibiotic resistance, and to give an overview of the emerging technologies aimed to escape the pre-antibiotic era recurrence. We conducted a comprehensive literature survey of > 150 original research and review articles indexed in the Web of Science using antimicrobial resistance, diagnostics, therapeutics, disinfection, nosocomial infections, ESKAPE pathogens as key words. We discuss the impact of nosocomial infections on the spread of multi-drug resistant bacteria, give an overview over existing and developing strategies for faster diagnostics of infectious diseases, review current and novel approaches in therapy of infectious diseases, and finally discuss strategies for hospital disinfection to prevent MDR bacteria spread.

Automated summary

Antibiotic resistance is a growing global threat that may result in more deaths than all cancers combined by 2050. Research is focused on the current state of antibiotic resistance, emerging technologies, and strategies for preventing the spread of infectious diseases.