Although there are many strains of antibiotic bacteria now present in hospital wards, antibiotics have effectively served 1 original purpose over the course of the past eighty years. They have been able to treat the infections of countless individuals and saved millions of lives. Antibiotics have changed the way in 2 many common diseases are viewed. 3 infected with bacterial pneumonia, for instance, is no longer considered fatal. Rather, it is viewed as a mundane infection which can be cured 4 a simple course of antibiotics. The number of antibiotics available for use has also affected their impact 5 society. Even if one antibiotic is ineffective at treating a disease, there are, for most common infections, a bunch of 6 drugs that can be used to effectively cure the disease. The development of antibiotics over the past eighty years has changed the relationship between humans and disease. Antibiotics have given humans the power to fight back effectively 7 microorganisms in a way that 8 have been considered impossible just a century ago.