There's been a big hubbub this past week about antibiotics. After Lancet Infectious Diseases reported the spread of a new drug-resistant superbug spreading from south Asia, news agencies around the world reported "panic" and "fear and loathing" over the germs' possible consequences. Some experts claimed the news was overblown --that the new bug was no worse than many others -- even as other experts, meanwhile, opined that antibiotics could soon be obsolete altogether.
Writing last week in the British newspaper the Guardian, for example, editor and columnist Sarah Boseley asserted:
The era of antibiotics is coming to a close. In just a couple of generations, what once appeared to be miracle medicines have been beaten into ineffectiveness by the bacteria they were designed to knock out. Once, scientists hailed the end of infectious diseases. Now, the post-antibiotic apocalypse is within sight.
So who, then, is correct? Is the era of antibiotics really coming to a close, or are the fears over-hyped?/.../
Read more: http://wellness.blogs.time.com/2010/08/16/the-end-of-antibiotics/?xid=newsletter-daily#ixzz0wsTZcLZQ
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