Doctors are understandably touchy about this subject. Most superbugs can still be killed by at least one antibiotic, and even the very sick tend to die not from infection but from the disease that landed them in the hospital in the first place. But it's not going to get everybody. Still, for people in desperate shape, a superbug can be the final, fatal blow. One study found, for example, that 75 percent of patients with hospital-acquired VRE died.
Doctors can help by being vigilant in infection-control procedures and giving antibiotics.
But when conventional drugs are rendered impotent by the powerful bugs, physicians are often forced to give antibiotics that are experimental or have serious side effects. The statistics are enough to make even a hypochondriac swear off hospitalization. Every antibiotic has lost its effectiveness against at least one form of infection that it used to control. Some 2 million Americans acquire infections in hospitals every year. Roughly half of those infections involve resistant germs.