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Doctors are very worried about what the future holds for MRSA.
The number of reports of MRSA infections rises year by year - and the latest evidence suggests that deaths due to MRSA are increasing at a similar rate.
Already, the spectre of a bug resistant to all antibiotics is approaching.
VRSA, or vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, has acquired resistance to a drug considered the "last line of defence" when all other antibiotics have failed.
The UK has already seen several cases of GISA, or glycopeptide intermediate Staphylococcus
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aureus, a kind of "halfway house" between MRSA and VRSA, which has developed a resistance to antibiotics of the vancomycin family.
Although new antibiotics are being developed all the time, pessimistic experts believe it is only a matter of time at current rates until virtually every weapon in the pharmaceutical arsenal is nullified.
Nihilists suggest that there could come a point at which bacteria retake the upper hand, and doctors, as in previous centuries, have no answer to some bacterial infections.
It should be noted, they say, that humans have only had the upper hand over bacteria for a handful of decades - we have no right to expect that situation to last forever.
What can we do about it now? ria.
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general population, making them more vulnerable to the infection.
Secondly, conditions in hospitals, which involve a great many people living cheek by jowl, examined by doctors and nurses who have just touched other patients, are the perfect environment for the transmission of all manner of infections.
Staph infections can be dangerous in weakened patients, particularly if they can't be cleared up quickly with antibiotic treatments.
MRSA infections can prove tough to treat because they are resistant to treatment, making them more dangerous than a simple case of Staph.
What is likely to happen in the future?
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