The Killers Within describes the human fight against infectious bacteria. The book includes the use, abuse and effects of antibiotics in humans and animals, along with a very nice summary of how bacteria gain resistance to antibiotics. The book also discusses phage therapy and various other means that scientists have considered for treating bacterial infections. This is a well written story of the fight against bacteria, including doctor's personal anecdotes and science bits that are not too technical but still full enough to be useful. This book is extremely interesting and informative. ( )

Antibiotic resistant and other drug resistance in hospitals and other places

This is a fascinating - and horrifying - look at drug-resistant bacteria. I work in a hospital and it scares the bejeepers out of me. ( )

Staphylococcus Aureus, or S. Aureus, really shouldn't be too big of a deal. It's only found naturally in a small number of people to begin with, about 1 in 4 people, and is relatively benign a lot of times. Even when it does become aggressive, it mostly causes minor infections, and only rarely does it become deadly. It's a bad microbe, no doubt, but certainly there are worse things out there, right?

Right, sure, that was indeed the case. Then it started to become antibiotic resistant. It made those deadly instances difficult to cure, becoming infected started to feel like a death sentence. Then it started to spread throughout hospitals like an airborne illness. What do you get? MRSA! Ohhh, and that's only the beginning. Yippee...

The saddest part is how these diseases got its, mostly through sheer ignorance. Over-use of antibiotics - not just among doctors who would prescribe them for every little ailment, but also by farmers as 'growth promoters' - is what caused them to become resistant to the drugs in the first place.

The Killers Within is definitely an eye-opening book. It isn't about one of those deadly super-killers like Ebola or Smallpox, in fact it is barely about a specific microbe at all, but rather their alarming consistency in outsmarting us with their ability to work around the weapons we use to fight them. It almost feels hopeless. A miracle drug is created, the world is saved, a few years later the microbe is suddenly resistant, and the drug is useless. So you throw a new one at it. How long can we keep this up?

I have a difficult time criticizing the book, really. It's true, I didn't find it the most riveting thing I've ever read, nor did I find all of the author's commentaries credible and some of his attempts to color up the book raised a few eyebrows. At one point he describes how the 'trillions' of bacteria across the planet can become drug-resistant. Any single human can be carrying trillions of bacteria in or on them, and the world-wide bacterial total would be...well, astronomical.

Still, the actual information found in the book is well worth the reader's time and effort. Upon finishing it, I feel I have learned a lot about how crafty those little microbes can be. ( )