5PM, July the 24th, The Future

A.

The building I work in used to be an old hospital that was converted into a series of labs as the need for quite so much hospital space declined. Implants that can sense the presence of pathogens, identify them and deploy the right drugs became available as soon as bacteria-based bioelectric interfaces were cleared for human use. Most of these implants use non-antibiotic methods to kill the pathogens, so the tide of antibiotic-resistant organisms has ebbed. Add to this the fact that all experiments use non-antibiotic markers, so even the most careless release will not cause a relapse in resistant bacteria. As a direct consequence of these things, even those who could not afford the implant could easily be treated with the (carefully moderated) use of antibiotics that were previously ineffective. Problems only arise when some paranoid hypochondriac keeps pumping his body full of antibiotics to get rid of the supposed plague infecting him and in so doing, causes a small surge of antibiotic-resistant organisms. As soon as such a rise is noticed, the resistant strains are tracked back to their source (handy that we can now track bacteria efficiently) and the area is decontaminated.