Them, in this case, refers to the growing number of bacterial strains that can survive assaults by the most powerful antibiotics known to medicine. They have earned the nickname, "superbugs," and they're a potentially deadly threat that man has actually helped to create.
Like all living things, bacteria follow the laws of evolution and adapt to their environment. When you take an antibiotic, the drug kills susceptible bacteria and leaves behind those that can resist it. The survivors then multiply, creating a new bacterial strain that the old antibiotic is unable to kill.
In the United States and other developed countries, decades of overuse and misuse of antibiotics have contributed the emergence of bacterial strains that many of our "wonder drugs" cannot touch. And the more that antibiotics are used, the more bacteria evolve.
Antibiotic resistance is not a new phenomenon. Resistant disease strains started showing up soon after the discovery of antibiotics. What is different now is that antibiotic resistance is no longer an isolated problem. Almost all human diseases that can be treated with antibiotics have evolved and developed at least some degree of resistance.
Summary by Matt Y.
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