[Skybird]

No, the threat is real, do not think of it in terms of swine flu. And it is self-made: because of the excessive abuse of penicillin and antibiotics even for diseases and minor issues where it absolutely is unneeded, but gets subscribed for reasons of easiness, comfort, or just habit, more and more bacteria strains become immune to antibiotics.

Or in the words of Dr. House, which in this case are absolutely true in reality as well: "This is our fault. doctors overprescribing antibiotics. Got a cold? Take some penicillin. Sniffles? No problem. Have some azithromyzin. Is that not working anymore? Well, got your levaquin. Anti-bacterial soaps in every bathroom. They' ll be adding vancomycin to the water supply soon. We bred these superbugs. They are our babies and they are all grown up, and they got body piercings and a lot of anger."

The problem is known since longer time, it is growing with increasing urgency, and we still have no drugs to replace those antibiotics that more and more become inefficient due to bacteria strains having become immune - despite tremendous research efforts being done. It is a top priority issue in the business. It's a classic case of evolutional adaptation of bacterias. And it means trouble.