health Are superbugs outsmarting us?

[ManaMinori 4,145]

This makes my skin crawl just hearing it, but I just saw on the news that bedbugs, of all things, have basically become zombies. Harder to kill, and resistant to the methods we've been using, because adaptation. What hasn't killed them made them stronger. This isn't the first case of reported superbugs, either. (Can't remember if it was more resistant flu virus, mosquitoes, or what) but is anyone else kind of concerned about vermin and viruses becoming more resistant to what we try to use to kill them? How long before they're literal zombies and unkillable?

[Malinter 3,064]

the nature of evolution means there is always something that can kill something else, some times its even another disease/virus as was the case with the first ever injection where it was realized that people who got cowpox never got the far deadlier small pox.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Malinter

[EquestriaGuy 1,074]

Yup, it's Natural Selection. The organisms that are resistant to what we throw at them are the ones who procreate, raising the bar for what it takes to kill them. 

[Stormlight 1,371]

Seeing as how many living organisms evolve throughout generations, it was only a matter of time until bacteria become resistant to man-made medicine.

 

Though, I do have high hopes that scientists will be about to find methods to outsmart the superbugs back.

[Invincible 2,091]

Either we find NEW methods to deal with them or we will die out, it's as simple as that.

 

Medicine, Technology and pesticides are all constantly evolving, just as diseases do and parasites do. It's a struggle to outkill the opposition.

[LHfunk 422]

Eh, superbugs destroying the Earth probably won't happen for a couple centuries. And zombies are killable (more like stoppable, but whatever).

[Untitled Goose Q 5,137]

No. The term 'outsmarting' does not apply, as they have no measurable level of intelligence.

 

Actually, by overuse of various medicines and other products, we've outsmarted ourselves with regards to these things.

[Chaton 3,765]

I for one welcome our new microscopic overlords!

 

Apparently this is partially happening because of the overuse of not needed medication and the underuse of needed medication. What I mean, is a lot of people are taking medication too much for things they either don't need to take it for or have been diagnosed wrong, and at the same time people aren't taking anti-biotic courses properly. This means that the "bugs" we get develop a resistance.

[Nsxile 27,126]

Not yet, as we still have other weapons we can use against bacteria... Like bacteriophages.

Edited June 2, 2019 by Nsxile