Antibiotic resistance has become one of the great challenges to human health in the 21st century with increasing numbers of isolates of many pathogenic bacteria being resistant to front line, therapeutic antibiotics.
In recent years there has been an increase in the use of biocides in industrial, clinical and domestic applications. This increased usage has prompted concerns that biocide exposure may lead to biocide resistance, which as a result of common mechanisms of resistance, will also select for mutant bacteria which are cross-resistant to antibiotics.
There is a global reliance on the use of antibiotics to treat bacterial infections and the emergence of new resistant strains presents a real global health concern. Recent evidence has suggested that antibiotic resistance can be selected by exposure to biocides, which are commonly used as disinfectants and preservatives.