A Foreboding Future

Although most antibiotics today still work in the majority of the people, how effective will such drugs be in the future? The Antibiotic Paradox observes: " We can no longer expect that any infection will be cured by the first antibiotic chosen." The book adds: "In some parts of the world, limited supplies of antibiotics mean that no available antibiotic is effective. . . Patients are suffering and dying from diseases that some predicted 50 years ago would be wiped off the face of the earth."

Bacteria are not the only germs that have become resistant to drugs used in medicine. Viruses as well as fungi and other tiny parasites have also shown amazing adaptability, offering the world strains that threaten to nullify all the efforts invested to discover and produce the drugs that fight them.

What, then, can be done? Can resistance be eliminated or at least contained? How can the victories won by antibiotics and other antimicrobials be preserved in a world increasingly beset by infectious diseases?

Next time: Kinds Of Germs