"As bacteria evolve to evade antibiotics, common infections could become deadly, according to Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization. Speaking at a conference in Copenhagen, Chan said antibiotic resistance could bring about 'the end of modern medicine as we know it.'"

'We are losing our first-line antimicrobials,' she said Wednesday in her keynote address at the conference on combating antimicrobial resistance. 'Replacement treatments are more costly, more toxic, need much longer durations of treatment, and may require treatment in intensive care units.'

Chan said hospitals have become 'hotbeds for highly-resistant pathogens' like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, 'increasing the risk that hospitalization kills instead of cures.'"
 
Katie Moisse reports for ABC News March 16, 2012. [2]