The headline is scary. Canada’s National Post story says, “Antibiotic crisis bigger than AIDS: Drug-resistant superbugs could turn routine infections into lif-and-death struggles.”

Despite some media coverage, the threat of antibiotic super bugs is still under the radar for most people. But if children start dying from routine cuts or scrapes because they became infected by a bug that could not be defeated by today’s antibiotics, the stories will make headlines everywhere.

Scientific and health experts have been warning about antibiotic-resistant germs for a few years. News reports have told stories of infections that were once easily cured with conventional antibiotics now being fatal or defeated only with very advanced and expensive treatments.

The problem has several causes. A major problem appears to be overprescribing of antibiotics, something that’s been going on for two decades or more. Too often, parents press doctors to prescribe an antibiotic for a child’s sore throat or ear ache, when those conditions can improve without medicine.

The problem created by years of overprescribing is that the germs are becoming so used to an environment with antibiotics that they are mutating and adapting, allowing them to survive.

Overuse of antibiotics can be reversed by doctors and patients. Doctors need to tell their patients when antibiotics are — or are not — appropriate. They have to explain that antibiotics do not treat colds, flu or most sore throats. A recent study found that antibiotics were routinely prescribed for sore throats, despite the fact that only about 10 percent of sore throats are caused by strep bacteria.

Doctors need to educate their patients. And they also need to be firm and resist parental pleadings for an antibiotic prescription that they believe will be a quick fix.

And patients, or more often parents of younger children, need to respect the advice of the doctor and resist demanding prescriptions for antibiotics that will likely not work, despite the fact that they want their children to feel better fast.

Another problem is that pharmaceutical companies are not developing new antibiotics to keep up with the evolving germs. Drug companies are not investing in antibiotic research and development because they see little profit potential, partly because most patients take antibiotic pills for a week or 10 days, then stop.

If the pharmaceutical industry fails to take action soon, it might be time for the federal government to intervene and contract with scientists to develop new drugs.

Some dramatic stories of superbugs have made the news in recent years, notably MRSA, which is a staph bacteria that can turn deadly very quickly.

Most people still live with the view that penicillin and other antibiotics are miracle drugs that can cure any infection. Once, that was generally true. Not now.

Our faith in modern science will be tragically misplaced unless we stop overprescribing antibiotics while also putting more money into research and development for new drugs.

The World Heath Organization has warned about the need to both cut back on overprescribing antibiotics and also the urgent need to develop new drugs to treat the new, evolving bugs.

One doctor with the WHO said that seeing a child develop a fatal infection after falling off her bike and scraping her knee might be a “freak occurrence” today, but “that is where we are headed.”

It’s a frightening thought that illnesses that once were easily cured could soon be fatal. Doctors, patients, parents and public officials all need to do their part to address this global threat.