The battle against the superbugs: No more antimicrobials, there is no ESKAPE

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the greatest challenges of modern medicine. During the last decade, a group of six bacteria have proven not only their ability to relatively “escape” the effects of almost any antimicrobial but also because they are the main cause of hospital infections. These organisms together are known as ESKAPE, acronyms derived from the first letter of the genus taxonomic from the scientific name of each bacteria (Enterococcus spp, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa y Enterobacter spp.) This review aims to describe the main resistance mechanisms associated with this group of bacteria and the impact they have had on the development of new antimicrobial strategies.