Antibiotic misuse Antibiotic misuse Antibiotic misuse, sometimes called antibiotic abuse or antibiotic overuse, refers to the misuse or overuse of antibiotics, with potentially serious effects on health. It is a contributing factor to the development of antibiotic resistance, including the creation of multidrug-resistant bacteria, informally called "super bugs": relatively harmless bacteria (such as staphylococcus, enterococcus and acinetobacter) can develop resistance to multiple antibiotics and cause life-threatening infections. Antibiotics have been around since 1928 when penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming. In the 1980s, antibiotics that were determined medically important for treatment of animals could be approved under veterinary oversight. In 1996, the
Antibiotic use in livestock in its inaugural 2013 report on antibiotic resistance threats in the United States, the CDC identified resistant non-typhoidal "Salmonella" and "Campylobacter" as "serious threats" and called for improved surveillance and intervention in food production moving forward. There are other bacteria as well, where research is evolving and revealing that bacterial resistance acquired through use in livestock may be contributing to disease in humans. Examples of these include Enterococcus (including "E. coli" 0157) and "Staphylococcus aureus". For foodborne illness from "E. coli", which is still not typically treated with antibiotics because of associated risk of renal failure, increasing rates of antibiotic-resistant