From Publishers Weekly
Bacteria preceded human life by millions of years but will they also outlive us? Shnayerson, a staff writer at Vanity Fair magazine, and Plotkin, an ethnobotanist, paint an alarming picture of the crisis posed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They focus on the three most common types: enterococci, streptococci and staphylococci. They tell of the deadly S. aureus a particularly virulent strain of staph that has shown up in deadly resistant strains and the infamous "flesh-eating bacteria" (necrotizing fascitis), whose incidence has been on the rise. They explain the myriad factors that have contributed to antibiotic-resistant bacteria and disease, most important among them the overprescription and misuse of the drugs, including the antibiotics fed to livestock to promote growth. Sharing the latest research, the authors suggest that future antibiotics are in the most unlikely places, from shark-bellies and silkmoths to the saliva of the Indonesian Komodo dragon. Shnayerson and Plotkin write in a lively, journalistic style and spotlight many victims, microbiologists and other "faces" behind the statistics, going far to make the copious scientific information accessible to general readers (though some may still be daunted). Yet their alarmist tone may strike many readers as overly sensationalistic and grating. Moreover, many of the facts about antibiotics abuse and drug-resistant bacteria are simply old news, and this book may not drum up much interest in spite of its informative analysis.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
At first glance, Shnayerson, a Vanity Fair staff writer, and noted ethnobotanist Plotkin (Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice) seem an unlikely pair to be writing a book about antibiotic resistance. Yet the reader quickly becomes engrossed in their tale. The authors provide an extremely readable look at the overuse of antibiotics, the methods bacteria use to develop resistance, the role of antibiotics as animal growth promoters, and the outlook for antibiotics. Drawing on a vast number of interviews with key people in the field, Shnayerson and Plotkin have managed to demonstrate their concern over the future of antibiotics while keeping the scientific background manageable for lay readers. A brief, annotated bibliography and list of web sites adds to the work. An interesting complement to Gerald Grob's The Deadly Truth, which discusses the inevitability of disease, this work also offers readers a riveting update to the section on antibiotics in Laurie Garrett's The Coming Plague. Recommended for public and academic collections.
Tina Neville, Univ. of South Florida at St. Petersburg Lib.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Scientific American
Commenting in 1969 on the success of antibiotics, U.S. Surgeon General William Stewart declared: "We can close the books on infectious diseases." Commenting three decades later on the rapid spread of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher declared: "We are seeing a global resurgence of infectious diseases." Shnayerson and Plotkin (respectively, a staff writer at Vanity Fair and an ethnobotanist serving as president of the Amazon Conservation Team) recount what brought about the resurgence: "The principal cause was overuse--and misuse--of antibiotics." Poor infection control in hospitals and nursing homes is a contributing factor. Is there a way of stopping the march of the bugs? Maybe. The authors explore several possibilities but stop short of predicting that any of them will succeed. Editors of Scientific American--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
When some bacteria began to develop resistance to penicillin, few physicians worried, because methicillin was available. Now many bacteria are resistant to both antibiotics, and physicians, researchers, and the rest of us really have something to worry about. Schnayerson and Plotkin clearly explain how these changes occurred, and they describe the abuse and misuse of other drugs, how resistance moves from animals to humans (e.g., though agricultural use of antibiotics), and how hygiene failures in hospitals and daycare centers aggravate the situation. They bring to life the work of individual researchers, such as Felix d'Herelle and Patrick Schlievert, and they chastise drug-company publicists and entrepreneurs out for a quick buck for their greed and their failure to accept the lessons of science. They draw on excellent work in Scandinavia and elsewhere, and on such seemingly irrelevant animals as the Komodo dragon, to demonstrate the diverse elements that have been drawn into this area of investigation. They are, however, not optimistic, concluding that "the bugs seem to have figured it [overcoming antibiotics] out." William Beatty
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Book News, Inc.
Tens of thousands of Americans are killed each year by drug-resistant bacteria picked up in medical facilities. Aimed at the general reader, this text describes the threat of constantly evolving bacteria and how physicians are trying to combat it. The authors (a journalist and an ethnobotanist) describe how bacteria work, how humans are creating "superbugs" through the widespread abuse of antibiotics, and how individuals can protect themselves and their families.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Washington Post, 8/25/02
"...an exciting narrative...admirably clear and accurate..." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Booklist, 9/1/2002
[The authors] draw on excellent work...to demonstrate the diverse elements that have been drawn into this area of investigation..." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Jane Goodall
"Absorbing, compelling-and terrifying...you need to read-and share-this book. Now" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Robert C. Moellering Jr., Physician in Chief and Chairman of the Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center
"This is a remarkable story..." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
David L. Heymann, Executive Director, Communicable Diseases, World Health Organization
"...a dramatic account of an already alarming situation poised to grow worse..." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Joe Graedon, author, radio show host, pharmacologist
"This is scary stuff. Pay attention." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Paul Offit, Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
"A compelling and dramatic look at our first steps into the post-antibiotic era." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Dr. Lindsay Baden
"...a global threat...important insights into the complex social, economic, and geopolitical forces at work." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
A battle is taking place on the frontiers of medicine between rapidly evolving bacteria that threaten our health and the doctors who are struggling to outwit them. These bacteria are everywhere: in and on our bodies, in homes, schools, hospitals, crowded airplaines, day-care centers. And, as THE KILLERS WITHIN makes frighteningly clear, so far the bacteria are winning.
About the Author
Michael Shnayerson is a contributing editor of Vanity Fair, as well as the author of several books. He lives in Sag Harbor, New York.Mark J. Plotkin is president of the Amazon Conservation Team and the author of Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice. He lives in Arlington, Virginia. Rating 4.5
Excellent Book. Every one should read it.This book describes the problem of the bacteria developing resistance to the many antibiotics that humans are using to fight them and, the most important, that we are losing this battle. The book talks about the reasons behind this : overuse and abuse of antibiotics by us, use of antobiotics as "growth enhancers" and so on. I am already aware of this resistance problem but after reading this book I was thrilled and frightened. If we do not change our ways of using antibiotics soon then we will soon be unable to fight those drug resistant bacteria when they cause infections and a huge health problem will unfold. I for one strongly agree with the authors that antibiotics use as "growth enhancers" should be totally banned as soon as possible.An eye-opener to the real worldThis book was extremely interesting for me, but I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone. I would recommend it however to those interested in the Health/Science industry. The read isn't so hard but does require a basic understanding of some medical terminologies and you have to be able to pick things up and follow ideas easily. The book reads almost like a horror story, except its true. I wouldn't recommend reading this book if you get paranoid easy. I know I usually don't, but even I find myself thinking twice about alot of things now. This book gets a high rating from me because, as a studying pre-medical student, it has helped me to find my area of interest in the field.This is an important bookThis is a serious book about a very serious subject--the escalating arms race between humans and disease-causing microbes. The bad news is that we're losing, making the emergence of resistant disease causing bacteria "one of the greatest threats to the survival of the human species."Co-written by Mark Plotkin, a leading ethnobotanist and Michael Schnayerson, a talented writer and editor, The Killers Within is a highly readable, often gripping narrative, full of stories, personalities and drama. At the same time, it presents a lot of the history, science and politics that surround the struggle of medical science to stay a step ahead of the deadly bugs that are proving remarkably adept at evolving ways to defeat our antibiotics. The authors have no trouble identifying the culprits in this losing battle--an agricultural industry pouring millions of pounds of antibiotics into poultry and livestock as "growth promoters," doctors and patients who overuse antibiotics, and the interaction of profits and politics that determine what kinds of drugs reach the market and when. But behind these lies our naive blindness to the bacterial world's incredible capacity to defeat our most powerful weapons. Bacteria have multiple ways to evolve and swap handy genetic information, such as how to cleave penicillin molecules or pump antibiotics out of their cells. All it takes is one bacteria that survives an antibiotic by evolving a new resistance mechanism; within a few years even unrelated bacteria thousands of miles away will know the trick. It's as easy for the bacteria, the authors write, "as collecting charms on a charm bracelet." The authors chillingly describe the costs of this war being fought out in our labs, hospitals and bodies--millions of illnesses, hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide, and the risk to all of us of returning to a world where we are no longer protected by antibiotics. Most of the major pathogens have already evolved multiple drug resistance. The very young and the very old are already dying from untreatable infections, but any one of us is now at risk that a cut, an accident, a minor surgery or a bout of flu can lead on to a raging infection by bacteria resistant to most if not all antibiotics. The authors do hold out some hope. Perhaps phages, vaccines, or new generations of genetically engineered antimicrobial agents will once again tip the balance in our favor. But for now, expect to see more headlines about outbreaks of resistant strains of bacteria and to hear more horror stories from friends whose scratch or surgery turned into a life-threatening nightmare. This book will help you make sense of those events. Let's hope that the dedicated and farsighted researchers it depicts will eventually win the day. Robert Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (Wiley, 2002). |
