The overuse of antibiotics may not be solely to blame for the growing crisis of drug-resistant bugs, researchers claim.
Deemed to be one of the biggest threats to humanity, the issue has previously been cited as severe as terrorism and global warming.
Antibiotics have been doled out unnecessarily by GPs and hospital staff for decades, fueling once harmless bacteria to become superbugs.
However, a new Swiss study suggests bacteria can also become resistant to drugs and become deadly by attacking rival bugs.
University of Basel experts found bugs can catch their competitors' drug resistance genes after killing them in the battle for space and resources.
The World Health Organization has previously warned if nothing is done the world was headed for a 'post-antibiotic' era. It claimed common infections, such as chlamydia, will become killers without immediate answers to the growing crisis. Bacteria can become drug resistant when people take incorrect doses of antibiotics, or they are given out unnecessarily.
Chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies claimed last year that the threat of antibiotic resistance is as severe as terrorism. Figures estimate that superbugs will kill ten million people each year by 2050, with patients succumbing to once harmless bugs.
Around 700,000 people already die yearly due to drug-resistant infections including tuberculosis (TB), HIV and malaria across the world.
Concerns have repeatedly been raised that medicine will be taken back to the 'dark ages' if antibiotics are rendered ineffective in the coming years.
