Antibiotics | featured news

Federal health officials, concerned about the growing problem of superbugs, took a tentative step toward banning a common agricultural use of penicillin and tetracycline.

Nearly a week after the Haiti earthquake, an overflow of patients and ongoing shortage of antibiotics often means doctors have few options other than amputation to save a life, says NBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman.

The mystery started the day farmer Russ Kremer got between a jealous boar and a sow in heat. The boar gored Kremer in the knee with a razor-sharp tusk. The burly pig farmer shrugged it off, figuring: "You pour the blood out of your boot and go on."

Overuse of antibiotics in Europe is building widespread resistance and threatening to halt vital medical treatments such as hip replacements, intensive care for premature babies and cancer therapies, health experts say.

Three scientists who produced an atom-by-atom map of the mysterious, life-giving ribosome won the Nobel Prize for chemistry on Wednesday, a breakthrough that has been vital for the development of new antibiotics.

Actually, these healthy bacteria form the basis of our immune system -- or they did until we took antibiotics.