Viruses vs. Superbugs

A Solution to the Antibiotic Crisis?

Thomas Häusler

256 pages, parution le 10/04/2006

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Résumé

Each year thousands of people die from bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Alternatives drugs are urgently needed. A surprising ray of hope is actually a blast from the past. Viruses that kill bacteria, but not us, called 'phages' for short, were discovered around 1915, when infections were still a major cause of illness and death. Phage therapy became popular from the 1920s until the introduction of penicillin 20 years later. Only in the countries of the Eastern block did the therapy survive and thrive. Now western researchers and companies are working on its comeback.

This book tells the fascinating story of the discoverers of phages in the west and the Soviet Union. Award-winning science journalist Thomas Häusler follows the trail of one pioneer killed by Stalin's secret service, and his successors in today's war-torn Georgia, accompanying patients taking phages because standard drugs fail them and investigates how these long-forgotten cures may help sick people today.

Sommaire

At the limits of medicine
Invincible microbes
The wild pioneer era
The renaissance of phages during the war
A parallel universe
Keepers of the grail in peril
Resurrection
What's the future of phage therapy?
Appendix 1: a short list of bacteria
Appendix 2: the advantages and disadvantages of phage therapy

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Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Macmillan
Auteur(s)	Thomas Häusler
Parution	10/04/2006
Nb. de pages	256
Format	13,5 x21
Couverture	Relié
Poids	405g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9781403987648
ISBN13	978-1-4039-8764-8