Deadly Outbreak Fuels Fears About Antibiotics

Could the antibiotic dam that has kept bacteriological infections at bay for half a century soon be overwhelmed by a tidal wave of super-germs? That's the concern after the discovery of what could be the first crack in that dam — one probably caused by the overuse of the wonder drug. According to figures released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control, more than 200 people in Minnesota and North Dakota have become ill — and four have died — after contracting a lethal strain of the staph germ known as staphylococcus aureus. Most disturbingly, the mutated germ apparently came not from the hothouse environment of hospitals — where it is common but considered manageable — but from somewhere outside.

"This is another in a series of reminders that antibiotics are losing their effectiveness," says TIME science writer Christine Gorman. Years of overuse have sapped the potency of what has been considered the greatest health care breakthrough of the 20th century. According to the Centers for Disease Control, by 1997 half of all hospital-acquired staph infections were resistant to the most common types of antibiotics. So what can doctors do? For starters, they can stop prescribing so many antibiotics — it only accelerates the development of supergerms. Already, hospitals are trying to hold back on the use of vancomycin, the last antibiotic silver bullet left in the chamber.