Antibiotics were an amazing advance in medicine and probably saved millions of lives. Unfortunately, they aren’t working as well as they did originally. Evolution happens and the bacteria they didn’t kill became immune to the threat. Their immunity is now a threat to us. Up to 23,000 Americans died from the diseases in a recent year. One disease, MRSA, is spreading beyond its original confines of hospitals. It is contagious, but the method of infection from one person to another isn’t understood. Because there are so few medicines as effective as antibiotics, when antibiotics fail against MRSA it can become necessary to cut out the diseased tissue. In some cases that means amputation. Replacement technologies are being developed, but there are no clear and obvious solutions in the meantime.
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“Superbugs Are Everywhere” – Slate
Pretending Not To Panic 