Antibiotics are not working as well as they used to, and we're being forced to use less well-established drugs as a result.

New research carried out by NUI Galway shows bacteria are becoming super-resistant because doctors are prescribing drugs that are more powerful than necessary to treat infections.  

One of the experts involved in the new study, NUIG Professor of bacteriology Martin Cormican, told Newstalk's Pat Kenny earlier 'Bacteria are extraordinary organisms that change very quickly - if you pour water into a glass it takes on the shape of that glass, bacteria are like that. ...in our world where people are using hundreds of thousands of drugs, bacteria are having to change shape and bacteria are doing just what bacteria do. It's humans that are to blame.'

Professor Cormican is warning that we can't develop new drugs quickly enough to deal with changing bacteria. 'In some cases we are starting to see infections in critically-ill patients where there are very few, if any, antibiotics that can be used reliably. It's a reality we haven't faced in over 70 years that there might be infections we can't treat':

The report's authors say their work will help doctors to see the effect of prescribing drugs. They're warning healthcare professionals that the decisions they make today are having a direct impact on the community, in the long-term.

It comes as the WHO warns antibiotics - once hailed as miracle drugs - are being overused, and the U.S. Centre for Disease Control says we have reached 'the end of the antibiotics era'.

Originally published 29/10/13