Antibiotic Resistance History
| Antibiotic introduced in year | First resistant bacterial strain found in |
| Penicillin introduced in 1940 | Penicillin-resistant staph – 1940 |
| Tetracycline introduced in 1950 | Tetracycline-resistant shigella 1959 |
| Erythromycin introduced in 1953 | Erythromycin-resistant strep – 1968 |
| Methicillin introduced in 1960 | Methicillin-resistant staph aureus (MRSA) – 1962 |
| Levofloxacin – 1996 | Resistant bacteria emerged in – 1996 |
| Linezolid – 2000 | Resistant bacteria emerged in – 2001 |
| Daptomycin – 2003 | Resistant bacteria emerged in – 2004 |
As the above table shows, bacteria are able to develop resistance in a few years after the development of a new antibiotic.
Interestingly, bacteria including Staph Aureus have not been able to develop resistance to silver even though silver has been used for more than 2000 years to fight infection.