'What is antibiotic resistance, and why should I be concerned with it?' Media coverage and political and scientific discussions about 'superbugs' that defy our current treatments, genetically-modified foods in our fields and grocery stores, the threat of bioterrorism, and the use of antibiotics in agriculture have increased citizen awareness and fears regarding the issues surrounding antibiotic resistance. "Revenge of the Microbes: How Bacterial Resistance Is Undermining the Antibiotic Miracle" is a single source of answers to this and other questions average people are asking. Written by experts with extensive experience in the field, "Revenge of the Microbes" provides the scientific information readers will need to form opinions and make informed decisions regarding the use of antibiotics.The authors have carefully sifted through a vast amount of information to ensure comprehensive coverage of topics including the larger issues of economics, politics, health, safety, and the environment. Specific antibiotics and controversies are examined in a real-life context; accounts of positions on all sides of the public policy debate are presented; and, less common issues such as what happens to antibiotics once they are released into the environment, are addressed. The evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is put into perspective and bacterial mutation and horizontal gene transfer are explained in simple terms. An in-depth documentation of antibiotic structures is provided in the appendix. Reader-friendly and comprehensible, "Revenge of the Microbes" will engage a diverse audience, including biologists, doctors, teachers, students, lawyers, environmentalists, and everyday citizens.This new volume encourages readers to consider the extensive role of antibiotics in modern medicine and the potentially catastrophic impact the loss of effective antibiotics would have today and on future generations.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good overview of antibiotics and resistance,
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This review is from: Revenge Of The Microbes: How Bacterial Resistance Is Undermining The Antibiotic Miracle (Paperback)
When antibiotics first came on the market in the 1940s, the general idea was that this was the end of infectious diseases. Unfortunately this has proven to be a false assumption. The fight against infectious diseases is a true arms race: every time mankind invents a drug, the pathogens find mechanisms to circumvent the action of the drug and to survive in a hostile environment. This book describes the various (kinds of) antibiotics, their modes of action and also the modes of resistance that are used by microbes to counteract the antibiotics. It also shows that a lot of resistance is actually due to human complacency, misuse and abuse of antibiotics: widespread use of antibiotics as growth promotors in the meat industry has led to resistance, description of antibiotics for viral infections (for which they do not work) has led to resistance, underprescription has led to resistance. All in all a rather grim picture which I know to be only too true.
Luckily Salyers and Whitt describe all these disasters using a very palatable, light style of writing. Maybe the book does not contain too much new information for biomedical scientists like myself, it certainly contains a lot of eye-opening information for interested members of the general public and even for doctors and vets, who I have often found to have only a limited comprehension of antibiotics.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
For the lay person or undergraduate level,
This review is from: Revenge Of The Microbes: How Bacterial Resistance Is Undermining The Antibiotic Miracle (Paperback)
Can be read in a day or two. Negatives: 1) no interviews with physicians, veterinarians, pharmaceutical companies, farmers, or most importantly (because they can probably effect the most change via legislation), politicians, 2) repetition of the end of chapter questions (driving at same points, over and over and over), 3) no real discussion of technologies to overcome (besides new development of antibiotics), e.g., nanotechnology biocides, and 4) does not tell how the average person can push for change (besides not asking for antibiotics everytime one is sick or reducing one's use of antibiotic soaps, cleaning agents, etc.), e.g., thru pushing their local politicos to support the STAAR act proposed by Senators Kennedy and Brown. I also thought the jab at Fleming, with regards to the discovery of penicillin, was unnecessary (serendipitous, surely, but I'm sure many saw apples falling from trees long before Isaac Newton did, right?).
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