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The Infectious Diseases Society of America cautions that drug-resistant strains of three microbes could soon produce a toll to rival that of the widely publicized methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The drugs once used to treat the three gram-negative bacteria — Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Klebsiella pneumoniae — are becoming ineffective, according to IDSA.

The bacteria enter the body through ventilator tubes, catheters, open wounds, and burns and cause pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and bone, joint, and bloodstream infections.

IDSA identified roughly 104,000 gram-negative infections that were resistant to antibiotics, compared to about 102,000 MRSA infections, after examining 2002 data from roughly 300 hospitals.

Although carbapenems are used as a last resort to treat the three gram-negative bacteria, the drugs don't always work, so some physicians have turned to older, more toxic drugs, such as colistin, which can produce side effects such as kidney damage and hearing loss.

"We're literally running out of drugs to treat gram-negatives," Brad Spellberg, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, told the Los Angeles Times. "And there is nothing in the pipeline right now."

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