The World Health Organization, governments and nonprofit groups may actually be driving drug resistance and endangering lives by failing to pay enough attention to the dangers of drug-resistant diseases.
Millions of children around the world die every year from drug-resistant strains of malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS and other diseases. "Superbugs" such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas (MRSA) now cause more than 50 percent of staph infections in U.S. hospitals.
If a drug treatment leaves even one microbe alive, whatever genetic attributes helped it survive will be multiplied in the next generation.
Reuters reports:
“Poor quality drugs, counterfeit drugs, incomplete use of drugs and other factors all contribute to the problem ... And this problem will worsen as drug access programs succeed”.