Antibiotic resistant disease is at least a real threat.
“Britain’s most senior medical adviser has warned MPs that the rise in drug-resistant diseases could trigger a national emergency comparable to a catastrophic terrorist attack, pandemic flu or major coastal flooding.” [The Guardian]
I have a song title for the this: “The Bacterium That Ate Cincinatti”.
A greater threat is posed, IMO, by the rise in non-pathological infections from antibiotic resistant microbes that, although they do not often result in clinical disorders, nonetheless contribute to a general reduction in the health of individuals, leaving them more vulnerable to more virulent diseases.
I am thinking particularly of the ubiquitous Gram-negative bacteria which thrive in the human alimentary canal and produce endotoxins that trigger general inflammation – and the diseases that are associated with such. These diseases include arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers, colitis, atherosclerosis, insulin resistance, obesity, hypertension, allergies, and perhaps others.