Those Resilient Germs How They Rebound

Viruses, bacteria, protozoans, fungi, and other microorganisms have evidently been around since life on earth began. The stunning flexibility of these germs, the simplest of all creatures, has allowed them to survive where nothing else can. They are found in scalding vents on the ocean floor as well as in freezing waters of the Artic. Now these germs are repeling the most concentrated of all assaults on their existence - antimicrobial drugs.

A hundred years ago, some microbes, or microorganisms, were known to cause illness, but no one living had heard of antimicrobial medicines. So if a person came down with a serious infectious disease, many doctores had little to offer in the way of treatment except moral support. The person's immune system had to fight off the infection on its own. if the immune system wasn't strong enough, the consequence was often tragic. Even a minor scratch infected by a microbe all too often led to death.

Thus, the discovery of the first safe antimicrobial drugs - antibiotics - revolutionized medicine. The medical us of sulfa drugs in the 1930's and of such drugs as penicillin and streptomycin in the 1940's led to a flood of discoveries in succeeding decades. By the 1990's , the antibiotic armory had come to include some 150 compounds in 15 different categories.

Next time: Anticipation Of Victory Smashed