Biography
Biography: Nausathkhan Ubayathulla
Abstract
There have been many advances in the management of head and neck infections over the past decade. New classes of antimicrobial agents, noninvasive imaging techniques, improved culturing methods are just some of the changes that have occurred which have enhanced dramatically our ability to diagnose and treat these infections with speed and accuracy.
Concerns among the lay population regarding the perceived shifting of infectious disease patterns and their subsequent manifestations have become a topic of discussion in the news media. For example Time magazine has suggested that antibiotics are so overused that the human body has become saturated and that the human immune system is so depressed that it provides an environment for the creation of ‘‘bacterial monsters’’
The impressive ability of bacteria and viruses to adapt, change, and mutate in response to our pharmacologic bombardment is a testimony to the complex and unpredictable nature of these microbes. For every new drug we formulate, resistance develops to an older and often used one. For every organism that we eradicate, another one suddenly emerges to take its place. To those of us in the clinical trenches, it seems that we are in a war with an ever-expanding number of increasingly virulent and destructive microbes.
Objective:
It is my hope that by summarizing the information provided by various outstanding contributors to this serious issue of antibiotic resistance and genetic mutation of these deadly bugs will help to resolve some of the important issues we currently face.