A few decades ago, we got all cocky and thought we had bacteria beat.
"Antibiotics!" we said. "Take that, bacteria!" And then, one day, they laughed at us.
Little did we know that bacteria had
their own set of tricks up their sleeves (or would have, if they had
sleeves). As common bacteria evolved resistance to antibiotics, many of
them became real threats, colonizing wounds and spreading in hospitals
full of immune-compromised patients. Hospital-borne bacteria like MRSA
(methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus),Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa can spread through the body, leading to pneumonia and sepsis (a whole body, systemic infection).
MRSA in particular has gotten a lot
of notoriety recently for its ability to chomp through flesh (doctors
call that symptom "necrotozing faciitis"), while Acinetobacter baumannii gained the nickname "Iraqibacter" for its prevalence among wounded Iraq War veterans. Pseudomonas aeruginosa,
for its part, made the news recently when it infected a Brazilian
beauty queen and caused her to lose her hands and feet, and then her
life. Scary stuff.
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