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Fig. 1 | BMC Biology

Fig. 1

From: Antibiotic resistance: it’s bad, but why isn’t it worse?

Fig. 1

Past and present cycles of antibiotic discovery and resistance. For approximately 70 years (1930s–1990s) pathogenic bacteria and the diseases they cause were controlled with the discovery of many new antibiotic scaffolds and derivatives. Resistance inevitably emerged, by the capture of mobile resistance elements or intrinsic mechanisms, but was countered with new drug discovery. In the present situation, the lack of new antibiotic drugs and the rise of multi-drug-resistant pathogens that harbor many resistance elements presents a grave public health challenge

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