The Antibiotic Paradox

Author : Stuart B. Levy
Publisher : Springer
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2013-11-11
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9781489960429

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The Antibiotic Paradox by Stuart B. Levy Pdf

The discovery of antibiotics heralded medicine's triumph over previously fatal diseases that once destroyed entire civilizations - thus earning their reputation as miracle drugs. But today, the terrifying reality of antibiotic-resistant bacteria resulting from our widespread misuse of antibiotics forewarns us that the miracle may be coming to an end. The seemingly innocent consumer who demands antibiotics to treat nonbacterial diseases such as the common cold or plays doctor by saving old prescriptions for later use is paving the way for a future of antibiotic failure. "What harm can it do?" is a popular refrain of people worldwide as they pop another antibiotic pill. Dr. Stuart Levy - the leading international expert on hazards of antibiotic misuse - reveals how this cavalier and naive attitude about the power of antibiotics can have deadly consequences. He explains that we are presently witnessing a massive evolutionary change in bacteria. This build-up of new antibiotic-resistant bacteria in individuals and the environment worldwide is an insidious and silent process. Thus, unwittingly consumers encounter resistant bacteria in their meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables. Unregulated dispensing of antibiotics in poorer countries breeds countless more resistant strains. Since bacteria recognize no geographical boundaries, resistant forms can travel the globe. If this trend continues to grow unchecked, we may someday find that all of our antibiotics are obsolete. Today doctors can no longer expect that their first choice of antibiotic for women's urinary tract infections or children's ear infections will work. Similarly, cancer therapy is rendered useless if patients are unable to fight infections that are sometimes resistant to eight to ten different drugs. In developing countries, people are now dying of previously treatable diseases that are no longer responsive to traditional antibiotics. These problems are just a harbinger of what will come if we do not act now. Dr. Levy, recognized by The New Yorker for his superb contributions to this field, is sending out an urgent message that the world cannot afford to ignore any longer. The goal of this unprecedented investigation into the dangers of antibiotic misuse is to protect the world community from resistant infections and ensure the success of antibiotics for generations to come

Author : Barry P. Rosen,Shahriar Mobashery
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9781461548973

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Resolving the Antibiotic Paradox by Barry P. Rosen,Shahriar Mobashery Pdf

Antibiotic resistance, once a term appreciated only by microbiologists, has become a common topic in the popular press. Stuart Levy, one of the contributors to this collection, bears some of the responsibility for increasing public awareness with the publication of his book "The Antibiotic Paradox" in 1992: Misuse of antibiotics resulting in increased bacterial resistance had previously been recognized in the infectious disease community. However, Dr. Levy's eloquent public warning about the shrinking efficacy of our antibi otic armamentarium served to alert the lay person to the potential consequences of this de mise in useful therapy. Because of the proliferation of diverse antibiotic classes with increasing potency and broader activity spectra, it had been assumed that any ordinary bacterial infection could be eradicated with the proper selection of drug. However, it has become evident that we are surrounded by resistant bacteria, many of which were introduced unwittingly into our en vironment through the unnecessary use of antibiotics. When it became evident that a number of people were returning for multiple visits to their family physicians for persist ent ear infections or non-responsive bronchitis, questions were raised about the antibiotic treatments that were being prescribed. Bacteria resistant to common antibiotic regimens were being isolated more frequently, often as organisms classified as "multi-resistant" with decreased susceptibilities to two or more structural classes of agents. Nosocomial spread of these resistances was aided by the transmission of plasmid-mediated resistance factors between species.

Author : Derek J. Chadwick,Jamie A. Goode
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2008-04-30
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780470515365

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Antibiotic Resistance by Derek J. Chadwick,Jamie A. Goode Pdf

Antibiotic Resistance: Origins, Evolution, Selection and Spread Chairman: Stuart B. Levy, 1997 Over the last 50 years, the rapid increase in the use of antibiotics, not only in people, but also in animal husbandry and agriculture, has delivered a selection unprecedented in the history of evolution. Consequently, society is facing one of its gravest public health problems-the emergence of infectious bacteria with resistance to many, and in some cases all, available antibiotics. This book brings together a multidisciplinary group of experts to discuss this problem. It begins by examining the origins of resistance and goes on to look at how the use of antibiotics in human medicine and farming/agriculture has selected for resistant bacteria. Separate chapters describe the evolution of resistance determinants and how these are spread both within and between bacterial species. Finally, the book contains discussions on strategies for countering the threat of antibiotic resistance. A major re-thinking of our approach to the treatment of infectious diseases is proposed-that antibiotic resistance should be seen as a problem created by the disruption of normal microbial ecology. To restore efficacy to earlier antibiotics, and to maintain the success of new antibiotics that are introduced, we need to use these drugs in a way that ensures an ecological balance that favours the predominance of susceptible bacteria.

Author : Scott H. Podolsky
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 324 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2015-01-15
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9781421415932

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The Antibiotic Era by Scott H. Podolsky Pdf

During the post-World War II "wonder drug" revolution, antibiotics were viewed as a panacea for mastering infectious disease. This book narrates the far-reaching history of antibiotics, focusing particularly on reform efforts that attempted to fundamentally change how antibiotics are developed and prescribed

Author : Institute of Medicine,Board on Global Health,Forum on Emerging Infections
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 333 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2003-03-26
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780309168304

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The Resistance Phenomenon in Microbes and Infectious Disease Vectors by Institute of Medicine,Board on Global Health,Forum on Emerging Infections Pdf

The resistance topic is timely given current events. The emergence of mysterious new diseases, such as SARS, and the looming threat of bioterrorist attacks remind us of how vulnerable we can be to infectious agents. With advances in medical technologies, we have tamed many former microbial foes, yet with few new antimicrobial agents and vaccines in the pipeline, and rapidly increasing drug resistance among infectious microbes, we teeter on the brink of loosing the upperhand in our ongoing struggle against these foes, old and new. The Resistance Phenomenon in Microbes and Infectious Disease Vectors examines our understanding of the relationships among microbes, disease vectors, and human hosts, and explores possible new strategies for meeting the challenge of resistance.

Author : Hans Zähner,Werner K. Maas
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 154 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9781461393733

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Biology of Antibiotics by Hans Zähner,Werner K. Maas Pdf

This book is based on Hans Zahner's Biologie der Antibiotica, published in 1965. There is a vast literature on antibiotics, covering chemical, phar macological, and clinical aspects. We have made no attempt to cover this literature comprehensively. Our effort is directed toward discuss ing antibiotics as biological agents. They are substances produced by living cells, yet they are able to inhibit the growth of living cells - in many cases even the cells that produce them. We have taken this apparent biological paradox as our point of departure and have tried to look in this light at the production of antibiotics and at their mode of action. In a sense antibiotics are comparable to mutations. They are useful as tools in the study of metabolism by blocking specific reactions. At the same time their mode of origin and their effects on the organisms that produce them are interesting problems in their own right. We have tried to incorporate both aspects into our consider ations. This little book, designed for biology students and medical stu dents, provides them with a framework into which to fit more specialized and detailed information on antibiotics.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : DIANE Publishing
Page : 196 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 1995
Category : Antibacterial agents
ISBN : 9780788130434

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Impacts of Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria by Anonim Pdf

Author : Ian M. Gould,Jos W.M. van der Meer
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2011-09-25
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9781441917348

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Antibiotic Policies by Ian M. Gould,Jos W.M. van der Meer Pdf

The first book was on "Theory and Practice" of antibiotic stewardship in its broadest sense -the how to do it and the do's and don’ts. The second, on "Controlling resistance" was very much on the relationships between use and resistance and beginning to home in on the hospital as the main generator of resistance, but mainly looking at it from a disease/clinical perspective. The last 3 chapters on MRSA, ended where the 3rd book will take off. "Controlling HAI " will concentrate on specific MDR organisms highlighting their roles in the current pandemic of HAI and emphasizing that the big issue is not so much infection control but antibiotic control, in the same way that antibiotic over-reliance/ over-use has caused the problem in the first place. Up 'till now the emphasis for controlling MRSA, C diff and all the other MDROs has very much been on IC, which clearly isn't working. This book will gather all the evidence for the increasingly popular view that much more must be done in the area of antibiotic policies/ stewardship, especially when we are in danger of a "post antibiotic" era, due to a real shortage of new agents in the pipeline.

Author : Euzebiusz Jamrozik,Michael Selgelid
Publisher : Springer
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2021-08-21
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 303027876X

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Ethics and Drug Resistance: Collective Responsibility for Global Public Health by Euzebiusz Jamrozik,Michael Selgelid Pdf

This Open Access volume provides in-depth analysis of the wide range of ethical issues associated with drug-resistant infectious diseases. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is widely recognized to be one of the greatest threats to global public health in coming decades; and it has thus become a major topic of discussion among leading bioethicists and scholars from related disciplines including economics, epidemiology, law, and political theory. Topics covered in this volume include responsible use of antimicrobials; control of multi-resistant hospital-acquired infections; privacy and data collection; antibiotic use in childhood and at the end of life; agricultural and veterinary sources of resistance; resistant HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria; mandatory treatment; and trade-offs between current and future generations. As the first book focused on ethical issues associated with drug resistance, it makes a timely contribution to debates regarding practice and policy that are of crucial importance to global public health in the 21st century.

Author : Jessica Snyder Sachs
Publisher : Hill and Wang
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2008-09-30
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781429923293

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Good Germs, Bad Germs by Jessica Snyder Sachs Pdf

Making Peace with Microbes Public sanitation and antibiotic drugs have brought about historic increases in the human life span; they have also unintentionally produced new health crises by disrupting the intimate, age-old balance between humans and the microorganisms that inhabit our bodies and our environment. As a result, antibiotic resistance now ranks among the gravest medical problems of modern times. Good Germs, Bad Germs addresses not only this issue but also what has become known as the "hygiene hypothesis"— an argument that links the over-sanitation of modern life to now-epidemic increases in immune and other disorders. In telling the story of what went terribly wrong in our war on germs, Jessica Snyder Sachs explores our emerging understanding of the symbiotic relationship between the human body and its resident microbes—which outnumber its human cells by a factor of nine to one! The book also offers a hopeful look into a future in which antibiotics will be designed and used more wisely, and beyond that, to a day when we may replace antibacterial drugs and cleansers with bacterial ones—each custom-designed for maximum health benefits.

Author : Alan C. Cassells
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 364 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2013-06-29
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789401589512

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Pathogen and Microbial Contamination Management in Micropropagation by Alan C. Cassells Pdf

This book is based mainly on invited and offered papers presented at the Second International Symposium on Bacterial and Bacteria-like Contaminants of Plant Tissue Cultures held at University College, Cork, Ireland in September 1996, with additional invited papers. The First International Symposium on Bacterial and Bacteria-like Contaminants of Plant Tissue Cultures was held at the same venue in 1987 and was published as Acta Horticulturae volume 225, 1988. In the intervening years there have been considerable advances in both plant disease diagnostics and in the development of structured approaches to the management of disease and microbial contamination in micropropagation. These approaches have centred on attempts to separate, spatially, the problems of disease transmission and laboratory contamination. Disease-control is best achieved by establishing pathogen-free cultures while laboratory contamination is based on subsequent good working practice. Control of losses due to pathogens and microbial contamination in vitro addresses, arguably, the most importance causes of losses in the industry; nevertheless, losses at and post establishment can also be considerable due to poor quality microplants or micro-shoots. In this symposium, a holistic approach to pathogen and microbial contamination control is evident with the recognition that micropropagators must address pathogen and microbial contamination in vitro, and diseases and microplant failure at establishment. There is increasing interest in establishing beneficial bacterial and mycorrhizal association with microplants in vitro and in vivo.

Author : Carsten Strøby Jensen,Søren Beck Nielsen,Lars Fynbo
Publisher : Springer
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2018-07-14
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9783319906560

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Risking Antimicrobial Resistance by Carsten Strøby Jensen,Søren Beck Nielsen,Lars Fynbo Pdf

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is predicted to be one of the greatest threats to public health in the twenty-first century. In this context, understanding the reasons why perceptions of antibiotic risk differ between different groups is crucial when it comes to tackling antibiotic misuse. This innovative volume gathers together chapters written by sociologists, psychologists and linguists with the common aim of examining the social factors that affect use of antibiotics among humans and animals. A unique focus on Denmark – one of the world’s most progressive countries when it comes to antibiotic regulation – as well as Europe more broadly, makes this book a valuable resource for regulatory deliberations on future antibiotic policy to effectively combat AMR.

Author : Maria Cristina Ossiprandi
Publisher : BoD – Books on Demand
Page : 142 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2015-11-26
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9789535122227

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Antimicrobial Resistance by Maria Cristina Ossiprandi Pdf

Antibiotic resistance has become a worldwide health issue, globally recognized as the first priority by WHO. Many forms of resistance can spread with remarkable speed and cross international boundaries. World health leaders are devoting efforts to the problem by planning strategies for monitoring the effectiveness of public health interventions and detecting new trends and threats. This volume focuses on the problem from different perspectives, taking into consideration geographical dissemination (soil and water), human medicine (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae) and veterinary (Enterococcus spp.) impact and molecular analysis. The purpose of this volume is to provide a useful tool for control and prevention and to discuss useful epidemiological data concerning ways of obtaining an accurate picture of resistance in different communities.

Author : Mary E. Torrence,Richard E. Isaacson
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 436 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2008-02-28
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780470752609

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Microbial Food Safety in Animal Agriculture by Mary E. Torrence,Richard E. Isaacson Pdf

In answer to public concerns, Microbial Food Safety in Animal Agriculture: Current Topics provides timely information on this area of increasing importance, giving a broad overview of pre-harvest microbial food safety. Written by specialists from around the world, this essential reference focuses on research in the areas of antimicrobial resistance, risk assessment, microbial detection methods and diagnostics, and emerging diseases. Coverage provides balanced overviews of Federal, industry, and academic perspectives on key issues in food safety. Specific organisms explored in depth include: Salmonellaspp., Campylobacterspp., Escherichia coli 0157:H7, and Listeria monocytogene. No other single source offers current information and detailed references on issues in pre-harvest food safety in production animal agriculture. Veterinarians, researchers, and food safety professionals in academia, government agencies, and food animal production industries will discover this resource crucial to defensive awareness.

Author : Danica Patrick,Stephen Perrine
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2017-12-26
Category : Health & Fitness
ISBN : 9780735216570

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Pretty Intense by Danica Patrick,Stephen Perrine Pdf

America's NASCAR standout offers a 90-day program to sculpt your body, calm your mind, and achieve your greatest goals Everything Danica Patrick does is Pretty Intense. A top athlete in her field, not to mention a fan favorite and the first woman to rule in her male-dominated sport, Danica approaches every aspect of life with the utmost intensity. Now, she shows you how you can apply her daily principles and transform your life for the better--and have fun while doing it. Danica's 90-day high-intensity workout, protein-rich, paleo-inspired eating plan, and mental-conditioning program will get you leaner, stronger, and healthier than you've ever been before. By mixing full-body training and stretching exercises, her accessible workouts hit the holy trinity of fitness: strength, endurance, and flexibility. Bolstered by a customized eating plan for all-day energy, her program will also help you cultivate a mindset for limitless success. You will learn to aim your sights high, confront challenges and setbacks with confidence, and cross the finish line every time. Whether your goal is a stronger core, better skills in the kitchen, or a promotion at work, Danica's Pretty Intense plan will help you reach your highest potential.