Meet your Enemies

Careless use of drugs bred baby-threatening germ

Today's strain of Streptococcus agalactiae results from massive over-use of tetracycline in the post-World War II antibiotics boom, they reported in the journal Nature Communications on Monday.
Strains of the microbe that were sensitive to tetracycline were wiped out, leaving behind a dominant, resistant superstrain that is dangerous for newborn babies without careful preventive care.
Called Group B Strep (GBS), infection can lead to potentially fatal pneumonia, meningitis and blood infection.
"The use of tetracycline from 1948 onwards led in humans to the complete replacement of a diverse GBS population by only (a) few tetracycline-resistant clones, particularly well adapted to their host," the paper said.

Here, have some azithromycin instead.