San Antonio College Library

For many years, we thought we had infectious diseases licked. No longer were microscopic bacteria inflicting the death toll that plagued the United States prior to the discovery of antibiotics more than sixty years ago. Antibiotics, the drugs used to treat bacterial infections, were the magic cure-all-- or so we thought. Scientists never expected the bacteria to fight back. Now we have to face superbugs. Superbugs are strains of infection-causing...

Introduces the world of drug-resistant bacteria that are increasingly hardened against antibiotics and pose a deadly new threat to human life.

"In Rising Plague, Dr. Brad Spellberg--an infectious diseases specialist and member of a national task force charged with attacking antibiotic resistant infections--tells the story of this potentially grave public health crisis. The author shares true and very moving patient stories to emphasize the terrible frustration he and his colleagues have experienced while attempting to treat untreatable infections, not to mention the heart-break and tragedy...

Authors present differing opinions on whether resistant infections are a serious problem, whether drug-resistant infections are the result of the agricultural use of antibiotics, whether drug companies are at fault for not developing better antibacterial drugs, and how can the problems be remedied.

Each year, an estimated 2 million people in the U.S. are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria-and at least 23,000 die. As the crisis deepens, FRONTLINE correspondent David E. Hoffman turns his attention to the American farm, a sector that comprises an estimated 70 percent of all antibiotics sold. Hoffman travels the country to investigate new research out of Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Texas focusing on how antibiotics on the farm might be contributing...

Antibiotics are powerful drugs that can prevent and treat infections, but they are becoming less effective as a result of drug resistance. Superbugs describes this growing global threat, the systematic failures that have led to it, and solutions that governments, industries, and public health specialists can adopt.--

The age-old chess game of host and disease, continually evolving, has changed radically in our time. The basic cause lies in our destruction of remote ecosystems, thereby unleashing new viruses. With our own bodies widely available to them, these new infectious organisms can easily traverse the "global village." AIDS, breast cancer, cholera, malaria, asthma, and even re-emergent tuberculosis threaten us. Virulent new microbes are taking hold, despite...

Across the world we are seeing the emergence of bacteria that have gone rogue. These are the superbugs, dangerous bacteria that are becoming resistant to our only defense: antibiotics. Horizon meets scientists who are tracking the spread of these potential killers around the globe, and discovers new techniques researchers are developing to help defeat these superbugs.

"A critically important and startling look at the harmful effects of overusing antibiotics, from the field's leading expert Tracing one scientist's journey toward understanding the crucial importance of the microbiome, this revolutionary book will take readers to the forefront of trail-blazing research while revealing the damage that overuse of antibiotics is doing to our health: contributing to the rise of obesity, asthma, diabetes, and certain forms...