We're losing the race against antibiotic resistance, but there's also reason for hope

Concern about the rise of resistance often focuses on overuse of antibiotics. There's plenty of evidence that we, the users, are the problem. In a recent multicountry study conducted by the World Health Organization, almost two-thirds of people believed that antibiotics could be used to treat colds and the flu, which are, of course, caused by viruses. Antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses. The same number of people also knew that antibiotic resistance was a real problem that could affect them, but this knowledge did not seem to prevent them from misusing the drugs. Every time we use antibiotics, we increase the chance for resistant strains to develop.