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Scientists have found dangerous drug-resistant "super bacteria" off beaches in Rio de Janeiro that will host Olympic swimming events and in a lagoon where rowing and canoe athletes will compete when the Games start on Aug. 5. The findings from two unpublished academic studies seen by Reuters concern Rio's most popular spots for tourists and greatly increase the areas known to be infected by the microbes normally found only in hospitals. ... A study published in late 2014 had shown the presence of the super bacteria - classified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an...

A new drug compound can recharge a class of antibiotics used to fight superbug bacteria, improving the antibiotics’ effectiveness 16-fold. It’s another volley on the part of humans in the ongoing battle between new drugs and bacterial resistance. This new compound doesn’t fight the bacteria itself — it just makes the antibacterial drugs more potent, and better able to fight the bacteria despite the bugs’ resistance. The compound, developed at North Carolina State University, could help researchers fight an emerging problem with a tricky bacterial enzyme. The enzyme is called New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase, or NDM-1, and it has been found...

Filed at 3:01 p.m. ET LONDON (AP) -- It's immune to most antibiotics and has killed hundreds of patients in hospitals across Britain. Now, a superbug has found its way into the British election campaign, with Tony Blair's government promising to slash infection rates. For the leader of the opposition Conservatives, Michael Howard, the debate is particularly personal: His mother-in-law died of the infection. ''I mean, how hard is it to keep a hospital clean?'' reads a Conservative billboard. Britain has the second-worst record in Europe for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, known as MRSA, a bacteria that can kill through blood...