Author: T. Häusler
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230552285
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Get Book Here
Book Description
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.
Author: Steffanie Strathdee
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 0316418072
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 355
Get Book Here
Book Description
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.
Author: Alain Fischer
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889714667
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Get Book Here
Book Description
The evolution of human beings has been shaped to a large extent by microbes. A number of microbes are innocuous or even contribute to our health equilibrium. This is the case of bacteria and viral phages present in our gut. However, several bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi are damaging our bodies, causing a number of acute and chronic diseases. Until recently, these bugs represented the main causes of death. Better hygiene, vaccines, antibiotics and other anti-microbial drugs have resulted in a better control or cure of many infections. However, malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS still represent major threats in several countries and the recent epidemics of Ebola and Zika demonstrate how vulnerable we are to newly emerging viruses. Furthermore, diarrhea and pneumonia caused by bacteria or viruses still kill millions of children worldwide. Most importantly, bacteria resistant to existing antibiotics are multiplying at a high pace and these superbugs are expected to kill more and more people in the coming years. Clearly, we need to develop more effective approaches to tackle bugs and superbugs. Better hygiene and better vaccine coverage must be considered first and education of kids is essential in this respect. This is the main objective of this series of papers published in Frontiers for Young Minds under the heading “How to Fight Harmful Microbial Bugs and Superbugs?”. Another key objective of the collection is to elicit the interest of children for research on innovative anti-microbial therapies and vaccines.
Author: Matt McCarthy
Publisher: Scribe Publications
ISBN: 192569352X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Get Book Here
Book Description
Drug-resistant bacteria — known as superbugs — are one of the biggest medical threats of our time. Here, a doctor, researcher, and ethics professor tells the exhilarating story of his race to beat them and save countless lives. When doctor Matt McCarthy first meets Jackson, a mechanic from Queens, it is in the ER, where he has come for treatment for an infected gunshot wound. Usually, antibiotics would be prescribed, but Jackson’s infection is one of a growing number of superbugs, bacteria that have built up resistance to known drugs. He only has one option, and if that doesn’t work he may lose his leg or even his life. On the same day, McCarthy and his mentor Tom Walsh begin work on a groundbreaking clinical trial for a new antibiotic they believe will eradicate certain kinds of superbugs and demonstrate to Big Pharma that investment in these drugs can save millions of lives and prove financially viable. But there are countless hoops to jump through before they can begin administering the drug to patients, and for people like Jackson time is in short supply. Superbugs is a compelling tale of medical ingenuity. From the muddy trenches of the First World War, where Alexander Fleming searched for a cure for soldiers with infected wounds, to breakthroughs in antibiotics and antifungals today that could revolutionise how infections are treated, McCarthy takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride through the history — and future — of medicine. Along the way, we meet patients like Remy, a teenage girl with a dangerous and rare infection; Donny, a retired firefighter with a compromised immune system; and Bill, the author’s own father-in-law, who contracts a deadly staph infection. And we learn about the ethics of medical research: why potentially life-saving treatments are often delayed for years to protect patients from exploitation. Can McCarthy get his trial approved and underway in time to save the lives of his countless patients infected with deadly bacteria, who have otherwise lost all hope?
Author: Maryn McKenna
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439171831
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Get Book Here
Book Description
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."
Author: Anna Kuchment
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461402506
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 143
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book fills a void. Never before has a comprehensive history of phage therapy—a once-neglected, now resurgent field—been written. Kuchment writes from the perspective of the eager student of history for the common reader.
Author: Connie Goldsmith
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books ™
ISBN: 1541538226
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 126
Get Book Here
Book Description
Throughout history, several deadly pandemics brought humanity to its knees, killing millions, and recent outbreaks of Ebola and Zika took coordinated international efforts to prevent them from spreading. Learn about factors that contribute to the spread of disease by examining past pandemics and epidemics, including the Bubonic Plague, smallpox Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and Zika. Examine case studies of potential pandemic diseases, like SARS and cholera, and find out how pathogens and antibiotics work. See how human activities such as global air travel and the disruption of animal habitats contribute to the risk of a new pandemic. And discover how scientists are striving to contain and control the spread of disease, both locally and globally.
Author: Thomas Häusler
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781403987648
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Get Book Here
Book Description
In the US alone some 90,000 people die from superbugs--bacteria that have grown immune to antibiotics. Officials agree that this problem will only get worse with time and new alternatives must be found. One alternative that is being considered by scientists is a kind of virus called a bacteriophage. "Phages"--viruses that kill bacteria but not humans--were discovered in 1915. Phage therapy was successfully used for twenty years before the invention of penicillin made them obsolete everywhere but Eastern Europe, where they are still in use today. In its first English translation, this book tells the fascinating story behind the history of the phage, its discovery and development, as well as the strides that are being made to bring the therapy back to the West today.
Author: David Quammen
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393066800
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 591
Get Book Here
Book Description
A masterpiece of science reporting that tracks the animal origins of emerginghuman diseases.
Author: Andrzej Górski
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030267369
Category : Medical
Languages : it
Pages : 384
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book gives a detailed yet clear insight into the current state of the art of the therapeutic application of bacteriophages in different conditions. The authors bring in their practical expertise within their respective fields of expertise and provide an excellent overview of the potential and actual use of phage therapy. Topics like economic feasibility compared to traditional antibiotics and also regulatory issues are discussed in far detail. This new volume is therefore a valuable resource for individuals engaged in the medical application of novel phage therapies.
