Bacteria: How Germs Learn to Live

Doctors have long been warned to go easy on antibiotics and sulfa drugs. When used with routine frequency, such germ killers may defeat their own purpose by leading to ever more resistant germs. Now comes worse news: the appearance of drug-resistant bacteria that can foil several antibiotics at once. The disturbing explanation is that certain germs "catch" this power of resistance simply by contact with one another. As a result, some infections of the intestinal and genitourinary tracts are becoming tougher than ever to treat.

Contagious Cuddling. The germs in question comprise...

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