LONDON - Heart swap operations and other forms of organ transplants may soon become impossible because of the emergence of "snperbugs" which are resistant to all existing antibiotics.
Microbiologists and other experts in infection control, meeting in London at the weekend, pointed out that some strains of bacteria were now immune to 99 of the 100 antibiotics in the world. If the last effective antibiotic - vancomycin - became overwhelmed by resistant strains, certain operations might become impossible. This would affect patients undergoing major surgery where the immune system was also suppressed, such as transplants.