Antibiotic-Resistant Bugs: When, Where, and Why?

Emerging infectious diseases are changing the public's perceived vulnerability to infectious agents. Recent best-selling novels and movies portray the human race as being at risk of devastation due to the introduction of an infectious agent similar to the Andromeda strain. Furthermore, much of the popu- lar media coverage of this topic employs the use of sensational language (eg, flesh-eating strep) or scenarios that are not based on existing scientific evidence (eg, the changing modes of transmission of a viral agent due to mutation in the movie Outbreak). The public is left with the sense that a major infectious disease catastrophe is waiting to happen. Often, we forget that such a catastrophe is in our midst; unfortu- nately, we have come to accept AIDS as part of the health fabric of the 1990s.