Superbugs Strike Back
Title | Superbugs Strike Back PDF eBook |
Author | Connie Goldsmith |
Publisher | Twenty-First Century Books |
Total Pages | 116 |
Release | 2007-01-01 |
Genre | Juvenile Nonfiction |
ISBN | 0822566079 |
Explains how superbugs came to be, what scientists are doing to fight them, and how you can protect yourself against these microscopic menaces.
Superbugs
Title | Superbugs PDF eBook |
Author | Matt McCarthy |
Publisher | Penguin |
Total Pages | 306 |
Release | 2020-06-09 |
Genre | Medical |
ISBN | 0735217513 |
International Bestseller "An amazing, informative book that changes our perspective on medicine, microbes and our future." --Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, New York Times bestselling author of The Emperor of All Maladies A New York Times bestselling author shares this exhilarating story of cutting-edge science and the race against the clock to find new treatments in the fight against the antibiotic-resistant bacteria known as superbugs. Physician, researcher, and ethics professor Matt McCarthy is on the front lines of a groundbreaking clinical trial testing a new antibiotic to fight lethal superbugs, bacteria that have built up resistance to the life-saving drugs in our rapidly dwindling arsenal. This trial serves as the backdrop for the compulsively readable Superbugs, and the results will impact nothing less than the future of humanity. Dr. McCarthy explores the history of bacteria and antibiotics, from Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin, to obscure sources of innovative new medicines (often found in soil samples), to the cutting-edge DNA manipulation known as CRISPR, bringing to light how we arrived at this juncture of both incredible breakthrough and extreme vulnerability. We also meet the patients whose lives are hanging in the balance, from Remy, a teenager with a dangerous and rare infection, to Donny, a retired New York City firefighter with a compromised immune system, and many more. The proverbial ticking clock will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Can Dr. McCarthy save the lives of his patients infected with the deadly bacteria, who have otherwise lost all hope?
The Perfect Predator
Title | The Perfect Predator PDF eBook |
Author | Steffanie Strathdee |
Publisher | Hachette Books |
Total Pages | 346 |
Release | 2019-02-26 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 0316418072 |
An electrifying memoir of one woman's extraordinary effort to save her husband's life-and the discovery of a forgotten cure that has the potential to save millions more. "A memoir that reads like a thriller." -New York Times Book Review "A fascinating and terrifying peek into the devastating outcomes of antibiotic misuse-and what happens when standard health care falls short." -Scientific American Epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee and her husband, psychologist Tom Patterson, were vacationing in Egypt when Tom came down with a stomach bug. What at first seemed like a case of food poisoning quickly turned critical, and by the time Tom had been transferred via emergency medevac to the world-class medical center at UC San Diego, where both he and Steffanie worked, blood work revealed why modern medicine was failing: Tom was fighting one of the most dangerous, antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the world. Frantic, Steffanie combed through research old and new and came across phage therapy: the idea that the right virus, aka "the perfect predator," can kill even the most lethal bacteria. Phage treatment had fallen out of favor almost 100 years ago, after antibiotic use went mainstream. Now, with time running out, Steffanie appealed to phage researchers all over the world for help. She found allies at the FDA, researchers from Texas A&M, and a clandestine Navy biomedical center -- and together they resurrected a forgotten cure. A nail-biting medical mystery, The Perfect Predator is a story of love and survival against all odds, and the (re)discovery of a powerful new weapon in the global superbug crisis.
Viruses Vs. Superbugs
Title | Viruses Vs. Superbugs PDF eBook |
Author | T. Häusler |
Publisher | Springer |
Total Pages | 307 |
Release | 2016-05-24 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 0230552285 |
Each year thousands of people die from bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Alternative drugs are urgently needed. A surprising ray of hope from the past are viruses that kill bacteria, but not us. Award-winning science journalist Thomas Häusler investigates how these long-forgotten cures may help sick people today.
Superbug
Title | Superbug PDF eBook |
Author | Maryn McKenna |
Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
Total Pages | 290 |
Release | 2010-03-23 |
Genre | Medical |
ISBN | 1439171831 |
LURKING in our homes, hospitals, schools, and farms is a terrifying pathogen that is evolving faster than the medical community can track it or drug developers can create antibiotics to quell it. That pathogen is MRSA—methicillin-resistant Staphyloccocus aureus—and Superbug is the first book to tell the story of its shocking spread and the alarming danger it poses to us all. Doctors long thought that MRSA was confined to hospitals and clinics, infecting almost exclusively those who were either already ill or old. But through remarkable reporting, including hundreds of interviews with the leading researchers and doctors tracking the deadly bacterium, acclaimed science journalist Maryn McKenna reveals the hidden history of MRSA’s relentless advance—how it has overwhelmed hospitals, assaulted families, and infiltrated agriculture and livestock, moving inexorably into the food chain. Taking readers into the medical centers where frustrated physicians must discard drug after drug as they struggle to keep patients alive, she discloses an explosion of cases that demonstrate how MRSA is growing more virulent, while evolving resistance to antibiotics with astonishing speed. It may infect us at any time, no matter how healthy we are; it is carried by a stunning number of our household pets; and it has been detected in food animals from cows to chickens to pigs. With the sensitivity of a novelist, McKenna portrays the emotional and financial devastation endured by MRSA’s victims, vividly describing the many stealthy ways in which the pathogen overtakes the body and the shock and grief of parents whose healthy children were felled by infection in just hours. Through dogged detective work, she discloses the unheard warnings that predicted the current crisis and lays bare the flaws that have allowed MRSA to rage out of control: misplaced government spending, inadequate public health surveillance, misguided agricultural practices, and vast overuse of the few precious drugs we have left. Empowering readers with the knowledge they need for self-defense, Superbug sounds an alarm: MRSA has evolved into a global emergency that touches almost every aspect of modern life. It is, as one deeply concerned researcher tells McKenna, "the biggest thing since AIDS."
Superbugs
Title | Superbugs PDF eBook |
Author | William Hall |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Total Pages | 236 |
Release | 2018-04-09 |
Genre | Medical |
ISBN | 0674985079 |
Antibiotics are powerful drugs that can prevent and treat infections, but they are becoming less effective as a result of drug resistance. Resistance develops because the bacteria that antibiotics target can evolve ways to defend themselves against these drugs. When antibiotics fail, there is very little else to prevent an infection from spreading. Unnecessary use of antibiotics in both humans and animals accelerates the evolution of drug-resistant bacteria, with potentially catastrophic personal and global consequences. Our best defenses against infectious disease could cease to work, surgical procedures would become deadly, and we might return to a world where even small cuts are life-threatening. The problem of drug resistance already kills over one million people across the world every year and has huge economic costs. Without action, this problem will become significantly worse. Following from their work on the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, William Hall, Anthony McDonnell, and Jim O’Neill outline the major systematic failures that have led to this growing crisis. They also provide a set of solutions to tackle these global issues that governments, industry, and public health specialists can adopt. In addition to personal behavioral modifications, such as better handwashing regimens, Superbugs argues for mounting an offense against this threat through agricultural policy changes, an industrial research stimulus, and other broad-scale economic and social incentives.
Probiotic Rescue
Title | Probiotic Rescue PDF eBook |
Author | Allison Tannis |
Publisher | John Wiley & Sons |
Total Pages | 212 |
Release | 2010-02-12 |
Genre | Health & Fitness |
ISBN | 0470678569 |
"Probiotic Rescue is your road map to the safe and effective use of probiotic supplements for health and disease prevention." —Donald J. Brown, N.D. Probiotics will improve your health! It has long been understood that probiotics can help calm and heal nearly any digestive complaint, including bloating and indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome, celiac disease and more. But did you know that the most cutting-edge research shows probiotics can help to prevent or treat cancer, improve your skin, and avoid osteoporosis and heart disease? With health benefits for people of every age, probiotics are the most important nutritional breakthrough of the century. In this outstanding, comprehensive resource, you will find: chapter-by-chapter, scientifically supported disease treatments and credible information you can trust; specific strains of probiotics recommended for treatment of your individual health concerns; a complete resource of probiotic foods and supplements (including the newest information about products soon to be released in North America); and a totally unbiased buying guide for food and supplements to help you add probiotics to your day-to-day life!