Not hard to understand at all and I know that antibiotics are only part of the story. I wasn't suggesting otherwise. Even without antibiotics, some natural selection could render a group of pathogens completely resistant to a particular type of medication spontaneously (without ever having encountered it), although it's much more likely to happen non-spontaneously. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I believe that, current research is looking into viral antibiotics meant to target very specific bacteria. Nanotech aims to do the same thing by affixing themselves either chemically or physically to bacterial receptors. The magic bullets may not be a theory too long...