We May Have Reached The 'Apocalyptic Scenario' With Antibiotics

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden made headlines last year when he proclaimed that the United States would "soon be in a post-antibiotic era," meaning we'd be plagued by everyday infections that our drugs could no longer handle.  It appears that age is already on our doorstep.

Newborns in India are now dying at alarming rates from infections that were once curable, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The same deadly “superbugs” are spreading around the globe and have already come to the United States, fueled in part by our country's overuse of antibiotics on farms and in hospitals.  The problem isn't just the bacteria — it's the fact that the drugs we once relied on to kill them no longer work.

Doctors commonly treat bacterial infections with antibiotics. When one drug doesn't work, they try another. But now, physicians are finding that some of our infections are resistant to even our strongest antibiotics.  The bacteria have, genetically speaking, outsmarted us...