"Nightmare bacteria," shrugging off antibiotics, on rise in U.S.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – “Nightmare bacteria” that have become increasingly resistant to even the strongest antibiotics infected patients in 3.9 percent of all U.S. hospitals in the first half of 2012, including 17.8 percent of specialty hospitals, public health officials said on Tuesday. “Our strongest antibiotics don’t work and patients are left with potentially untreatable infections,” Dr Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement. He said doctors, hospitals and public health officials must work together to “stop these infections from spreading. …