Chapter 13: Revenge of the Germs Summary and Analysis

By 1982, many viruses were resistant to antibiotics, including the staph infection. MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) became a huge problem world wide, and all staph infections began to increase. Staph continued to adjust to new drugs, and other viruses, such as strep, began to mutate as well as those of pneumonia, ear infection viruses, and rheumatic fever. These diseases were much worse in third world countries due to poor supplies, lack of antibiotics, and resource issues. In addition, various types of S. pneumoniae were resistant to almost all forms of antibiotics. Microbes were also found to change in other ways, such as adapting to scavenge DNA instead of absorbing plasmids. In poverty stricken areas, people accidentally encouraged drug resistant bacteria by self medicating, using black market antibiotics. Leprosy, gonorrhea, and bacterial intestinal disease...