There’s a silent war going on, and we’re losing.

The latest disturbing report showed that common hospital bacteria can learn to resist antibiotics they haven’t even been exposed to.

The report, published in the journal Microbiology, found that the bacteria can learn to resist disinfectants – something we’ve already known. But it turns out that as they mutate to fight the disinfectant, they also end up immune to ciprofloxacin, a common antibiotic.

These and other drug-resistant superbugs aren’t getting enough attention, but they’re turning into a major problem, especially for seniors who spend so much time in hospitals and nursing homes.

One new study found that bathing patients in antiseptic before surgery – instead of the traditional brown iodine rub – could cut surgical-site bacterial infections by 40 percent. Sounds good… for now. But if bacteria can learn from disinfectant, then it’s not out of the question they could do something similar with antiseptics.

In fact, there have already been reports of antiseptic- resistant bacteria.

In just 10 years, the most common drug-resistant bacterial infection – MRSA – has risen by 90 percent in the United States. MRSA now kills 20,000 people per year – and you can expect that number to rise, too. Meanwhile, other bacteria are learning to mutate and resist drugs as well – like Acinetobacter, Clostridium difficile and Streptococcus pneumoniae.

They’re also being seen more frequently outside of hospitals.

This problem is only going to get worse… because there’s not a lot of money in a solution. Yet.

Our overuse of antibiotics is one of the biggest problems – but most doctors know this, and still happily prescribe them at every turn.

We could turn to new and different antibiotics – there’s been some promising early research there – but Big Pharma is not all that interested in spending big money developing those. Patients take these meds for a few days at a time, and they’re done.

They would much rather invest in meds with big paydays, like statins and antacids, which people take – usually unnecessarily – day after day, year after year.

Big Pharma will eventually invest in this, too – just not yet. Because as far as they’re concerned, there’s one other much more lucrative option: Waiting.

“Really it is vaccines – rather than antibiotics – which hold the key to the big victories,” Dr. David Livermore, an infections expert at Britain’s Health Protection Agency, told the BBC last year.

Sadly, Dr. Livermore – who has actively and repeatedly campaigned for better antibiotics and more responsible use of these meds – is right.

Big Pharma would much rather wait for new diseases caused by superbugs, and then force vaccines on us, than solve the problem now by investing antibiotics and promoting more responsible drug use.

That’s more dangerous for us… but much more profitable for them.