My oldest son is a 19yo private in the US Marine Corps. He has a young wife and a new baby. He was cleaning his weapon and nicked his finger. He was a boy scout; he got his first aid merit badge. So he washed it, slapped on a Band-Aid, and went on about his regularly scheduled day. Now he is facing at least a month in the hospital as the doctors whittle away necrotic tissue. He has developed pneumonia.He will require a skin graft if he does not lose his finger entirely. He has a particularly nasty staph infection.
MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus. See http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_mrsa_ca_public.html#15) is what is known as a super bug. All of the antibiotics that end with "cillin" don't do a thing. This nasty critter has evolved around our attempts to wipe out germs. As Ian Malcolm says in Jurassic Park, "life finds a way." Staphylococci sure do. This thing is evolving faster than the average 19 yo marine, that's the trouble.
Please understand. I am not blaming anyone for anything. It is not the Marine Corps' fault for letting my kid touch a dirty gun. It's not the government's fault for not throwing enough money on research. It's not my kids fault for not taking proper action to deal with his wound (it was just a nick). Sometimes life just happens. Some days you just get the booger-flavored Jelly Belly.
I have a worried kid with a worried bride trying to figure out how to support his family if he is discharged from the Marines with nine fingers. I am most of a continent away hopin this thing won't just kill him outright. All I can do is call and make wisecracks and soothing "poor baby" sounds.
You know what? I do blame people (like my darling mother whom I do love and honor) who take antibiotics incorrectly. She would get a prescription for tetracycline and save few pills for the next time she felt a cold coming on. "It works like magic!" I blame doctors who have prescribed them incorrectly. I blame consumsers who insist on antibacterial everything when soap and water will do. I blame whoever it is that keeps putting new and improved on cleaners and drugs. Well, the staphylococcus is new and improved, too. It seems we've advanced ourselves right back to the Civil War Era when doctors had no clue about germs and soldiers died of infections in minor wounds.