Prophylactic Antibiotics? The Individual versus the Community

The medical community continues to witness the remarkable versatility of micro-organisms as they successfully adapt to living with antibiotics and related antimicrobial agents. The staphylococcus and gramnegative enteric organisms first demonstrated these adaptive abilities; now others have joined their ranks: the gonococcus, Haemophilus influenzae and most recently the pneumococcus. Some scientists believe that we may indeed be returning to a “pre-antibiotic era,” in which these transformed multiresistant micro-organisms will again devastate mankind. This alarm is due to the observed selective pressure in both human and nonhuman microbial environments exerted by the widespread and ever-increasing use of antibiotics. Micro-organisms selected because.