Scientific India - May/June 2015

Rise of the superbug Bacteria
Antibiotic medications are used to kill bacteria, which can cause illness and disease. They have made a major contribution to human health. Many diseases that once killed people can now be treated effectively with antibiotics. However, some bacteria have become resistant to commonly used antibiotics. we are quickly losing the fight against bacteria as so-called "superbugs" continue to develop resistance to some of the last effective antibiotics, leading some scientists to worry about the possibility of untreatable bacterial infections.
Superbugs are strains of bacteria that are resistant to several types of antibiotics. More than 58,000 infants died last year as a result of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, according to a study last year in British medical journal The Lancet. Former cures for these bugs are no longer as effective because the bacteria are mutating around them. India has lost the war against the toughest forms of antibiotic resistance, largely because of poor sanitation, unregulated use of antibiotics and an absence of drug resistance monitoring, according to the man who discovered a type of drug resistance in bacteria in New Delhi.