May 28, 2010
The growing problem of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus or staph) is illustrative (Figure ES.1). In 1987, 2 percent of patients infected with S. aureus failed to respond to methicillin, an inexpensive antibiotic that had been effective against these infections since the 1960s. By 2004, more than 50 percent of patients with S. aureus failed to respond to methicillin, with terrible consequences. Already a few cases of resistance to vancomycin, the drug often used to treat MRSA infections, have been reported.
