Viruses vs. Superbugs: A Solution to the Antibiotics Crisis? (Hardcover)

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Review
"An exceptionally thorough book, extraordinarily well written and scientifically authoritative...a book about an explosive subject, that could not have been done better"--"Spektrum der Wissenschaften," the German "Scientific American" "Thomas Hausler tells a forgotten chapter of the history of medicine that ends in the present with a surprising comeback. His book is riveting and written in an exemplary style."--"Schweizerische Arztezeitung"
"Thomas Hausler traces in his gripping book the story of the rise, the fall and the possible renaissance of bacteriophages as drugs."--Basler Zeitung
"The Swiss science journalist Thomas Hausler has written an extremely compelling popular science book."--Laborjournal
"Hausler's book tells the gripping tale of the once hyped now forgotten phage therapy."--Tages-Anzeiger "Thomas Hausler paints a vivid and engaging picture of the larger-than-life characters who committed themselves to the development of phage therapy. The science is there - in easily understandable language - but so are Stalin's purges and the Second World War. Bacteriophage therapy has not yet taken off - but promise is there. This authoritative book explains why."--T. Hugh Pennington, president of the British Society for General Microbiology
"This book, documented with rare photographs and abundant references, is scientific journalism at its best and a fascinating contribution to the history of medicine."--Professor Hans-Wolfgang Ackermann, Laval University
"Hausler shares with us the fascinating fruits of a remarkable year-long odyssey in time and space, during which he explored the depths of archives old and new, from the Pasteur Institute to NIH, Los Angeleshospitals, Tbilisi clinics and German companies. His thoughtful interviews and strong, ongoing scholarship bring to life the work of Felix d'Herelle and his scientific descendents in tantalizing and accessible fashion." --Elizabeth Kutter, Evergreen State College
"The reader will put down this page-turner inspired, hopeful, and utterly convinced of phage therapy's imminence and inevitability. An indispensable primer for everyone concerned with the onset of the post-antibiotic age."--Asher Wilf, CEO, Phage-Biotech "FOUR STARS: A good book--excellent use of the stories of real people involved in the fight against bacteria." --www.popularscience.co.uk" "
"Unusually well-researched, outstandingly well-written. This book deserves to be on the shelf of every private and public library." --"Epoch Times" "A salient and thought provoking take on society's attitudes toward disease and medicine." --"www.scienceagogo.com" "All the ingredients of a John Le Carre spy novel: fascinating." --"EMBO Reports""" "A thoroughly scholarly account, in a highly entertaining narrative form. A compelling read, populated with fascinating characters." --"Micro Today" "Valuable reading, both for specialists and for interested general readers." --"Journal of the American Medical Association"


Professor T. Hugh Pennington, president of the British Society for General Microbiology
'"…paints a vivid and engaging picture of the larger-than-life characters who committed themselves to the development of phage therapy."

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1 Review 5 star:  (1) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting history of phage therapy and its possible future, 6 Jun 2009 By  Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    This is mostly a history of bacteriophage therapy with an emphasis on the pioneering work of French bacteriologist Felix d'Herelle beginning before World War I. Much of the early work was done during the Great War in places like the Soviet Union to combat bacterial infection associated with battlefield wounds. D'Herelle himself went to such places as India to study cholera phages and was able to save the lives of many people. Bacteriophages are viruses that exclusively attack bacteria much the same way other viruses attack our cells by invading and taking over the DNA machinery to reproduce themselves. After getting the bacterium to produce perhaps as many as a thousand or more viruses the phages burst open the bacteria cells walls with enzymes and flow out to attack other bacteria. With such a multiplier effect it doesn't take long to infect and destroy billions of bacteria. Typically there are some bacteria that are immune to the particular phage but their numbers are so small that our immune systems finish them off. Some of the cures in the book have been spectacular. Hausler reports on dying patients up and feeling fine in a day or two. Over the years there were many such successes. However, because the actual studies and experiments were conducted with less rigor than modern standards require and because there were dosage problems and unsubstantiated claims, bacteriophage therapy has had a checkered history. When penicillin and other antibiotics came into widespread use in the forties, phage therapy was all but forgotten. Now with bacteria becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics, interest in phage therapy has returned. Hausler devotes a significant portion of the book describing the problems and promises of phage therapy and explains why progress toward using phages against resistant bacteria has been so slow. Where it seems likely that new successes will occur (and are occurring) is in veterinarian medicine. Until it becomes easier (and cheaper) to get phage products through the FDA in the US, most of the work will probably be with animals, especially those animals like cows, pigs, and chickens that become our food. With part of the problem of bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics due to their use in animal feed, using phage therapy instead, or in combination with antibiotics, could become widespread. While it is true that bacteria evolve and become resistant to their phages, it is also true that phages themselves can evolve to bypass bacterial resistance. In other words there is a primordial "arms war" going on between phages and bacteria of which we can take advantage. One method microbiologists use to find phages that work against specify bacteria is to take water from sewers where the bacteria have been excreted from people or animals and search that water for phages. There will be found the phages that have evolved to attack the bacteria that have evolved! The book has plenty of endnotes and a good index. Of special interest perhaps are the appendices, one listing common bacteria and what they do to us, and the other detailing the advantages and disadvantages of phage therapy. All and all this is a good introduction to an exciting and promising area of medical science. But note well the question mark at the end of the book's subtitle: "A Solution to the Antibiotic Crisis?" It would appear that phage therapy will not solve the crisis by itself, but will most likely allow us to rely less on antibiotics, thereby allowing some antibiotics to be used for longer periods of time before bacterial resistance sets in. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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