6. Misuse or Overuse of Antibiotics
A type of staph bacteria doing the rounds in hospitals decades ago was cause for alarm as broad-spectrum antibiotics could not eradicate it. This drug-resistant staph strain is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The real problem came when MRSA started presenting itself in communities beyond its typical hospital boundaries in the 1990s.
This kind of bacterial drug-escaping strain is due to not only clever bacterial mutation but also the over-prescription and incorrect use of antibiotics. Intelligent, street-smart bacteria evolve and learn how to ‘outwit’ future antibiotic courses. Staph is so smart that in the chess game of germ evolution, it checkmates to a new outbreak faster than science and research can come up with more potent and effective medication to treat it.
Human impatience is also to blame. There is no need to take antibiotics for many infections that would clear up on their own, but people readily take antibiotics to speed up healing time. Another problem has been identified as the overprescription of antibiotics to animals.