This is big news, because a lot of the antibiotics now available are losing their power against the disease-causing bacteria they once wiped out with ease.
This new antibiotic is called Zyvox. It and all other antibiotics are drugs that destroy bacteria. Specifically, the term antibiotic refers to drugs that are made from chemicals bacteria and fungi naturally produce themselves as a way to compete with other microbes.
The first antibiotic was penicillin <pen-ih-sill-in>, discovered by Dr. Alexander Fleming through a lucky accident in 1928. Fleming was a scientist who studied bacteria, which involved growing them on glass plates. He was about to throw away some plates that had become contaminated by a mold. But then he noticed that whereever there was a spot of mold, there were no bacteria growing around it. The mold had killed them with the chemical we now know as penicillin.
Since then, more than 100 antibiotics have been identified and developed. They have often been called "magic bullets" because they’ve been so successful in treating many once common diseases, including some that routinely killed thousands of people every year.
But many of these antibiotics are simply variations of the same type. The last whole new type of antibiotic to become available was a group called the quinolones <kwin-uh-loans> more than 35 years ago.
In the meantime, something scary has been happening: Bacteria are finding ways to shield themselves from antibiotics. In other words, in some cases the magic bullets are bouncing harmlessly off of hardier and therefore more dangerous germs. (See the section on Microbial Mutations for more details.)
Having new types of antibiotics should help doctors fight these stubborn germs. Efforts to reduce antibiotic use are also underway to help slow the spread of drug resistance among bacteria. One of the biggest problems is the use of antibiotics to treat viral infections. Antibiotics only work against bacteria. They DO NOT and never have worked against viruses. However, many people expect to take a drug when they feel ill, even with a cold, and doctors have been willing to prescibe pills just to make their patients feel better, even though they know those pills won’t actually do anything. Unfortunately, bacteria that normally live in the body are exposed to the antibiotic and over time they evolve means to shield themselves. They share this defense with other bacteria, including germs passing through the body. Bacteria moving from one person to another share this defense with other bacteria, and so resistance spreads.
Already in a few cases bacteria have shown some resistance to Zyvox. How long Zyvox remains powerful against germs will depend on how widely and frequently it’s used and how quickly bacteria can evolve a new defense. But hopefully by then we’ll have other new antibiotics to take its place.
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