Influence of Humans on Evolution and Mobilization of Environmental Antibiotic Resistome - Volume 19, Number 7—July 2013 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC

The clinical failure of antimicrobial drugs that were previously effective in controlling infectious disease is a tragedy of increasing magnitude that gravely affects human health. This resistance by pathogens is often the endpoint of an evolutionary process that began billions of years ago in non-disease-causing microorganisms. This environmental resistome, its mobilization, and the conditions that facilitate its entry into human pathogens are …