Bug is a slang word for micro-organisms. Super-bug, it has nothing to do with the Volkswagen car or superman it is not a bug that saves life but they do have something in common with him that is the power to survive through difficult situations. How do they get this power? Its genes, they acquire these genes by a mechanism, these genes allow them to resist antibiotics, having one or two of these genes is very common but when they acquire a full set of genes which allow them to resist large number of antibiotics they become multi resistant, which makes it difficult to kill them or at least stop there growth. These genes give resistance to bacteria by producing a enzyme or altering a protein structure in a way that they make the antibiotic inactive and are able to flourish even the antibiotic is present. So u see they are a big problem for us, as of now several bacteria have started showing resistance against first line drugs(preferred because they are relatively cheap and less toxic) so we are forced to use second line drugs(costly and toxic). There is our very old multi-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRS) and the latest are the multi-resistant Mycobacteriun tuberculosis, since TB is at large scale in developing countries it makes things worst. We have a NDM-1 gene named after New Delhi which confers high resistance to the bacteria it enters. To make things worst this bacteria has reached to other countries first it was only contained in India but because of medical tourism it has reached UK n USA but India still lives in denial.
The reason these super-bugs are popping out is, abusive use of antibiotics especially in countries like India were there is no common board for looking after the use of antibiotics and the lack of information between the doctors and also the patients. The pharmacy also have a role to play since they give out medication without prescription like they are candies. They have also found out another reason is that, they add drugs in feed of domestic animals which eventually enter the human body, if the bacteria acquires resistance in the animal they are transmitted to humans via three pathways, those being through the consumption of meat, from close or direct contact with animals, or through the environment.
The super-bugs are a serious threat but as of yet we still have second line drugs to control them but time will come when they will become resistant to the second line drugs.
