The forces of nature appear intent on reversing mankind’s
progress toward better health. An example is the ever-increasing
resistance of bacteria to antibiotics. A timeline of the
existence of humans and bacteria shows that bacteria have been
around for a very long time— much longer than mammals, and much,
much longer than humans. In fact by the dawn mankind, bacteria
had been thriving, relatively uninhibited, for over 2 billion
years. Modern humans have been around for 40,000-200,000 years
or so, depending on the definition of ’modern.’ Bacteria have
had the upper hand during all of mans’ existence, save for the
past 100 years after penicillin and other antibiotics were
discovered. Only the most self-centered of species would look at
a timeline and conclude that humans have won the battle with
bacterial diseases. There are always reasons for optimism, but a
fair assessment of our current struggle with antibiotic
resistance suggests that someday, people will look back on the
current sliver of time, when human