Viruses Vs. Superbugs A Solution to the Antibiotics Crisis [Hardcover]

Each year thousands of people die from bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Alternative drugs are urgently needed. A surprising ray of hope from the past are viruses that kill bacteria, but not us. Award-winning science journalist Thomas H?usler investigates how these long-forgotten cures may help sick people today.Preface Foreword At the Limits of Medicine Invincible Microbes The Pioneer Era The Renaissance A Parallel Universe Keepers of the Grail in Peril Resurrection What's the Future? Appendix Notes and References Index

'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 H?usler 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. Horror stories about pus-discharging wounds bring the reader down to earth regularly as well. Bacteriophage therapy has not yet taken off - but promise is there. This authoritative book explains why.' - Professor T. Hugh Pennington, President of the British Society for General Microbiology

'This book is scientific journalism at its best....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 and give strong reason to believe that phages can, indeed, be a powerful aid in dealing with the pressing antibiotic crisis.' - Professor Elizabeth Kutter, Evergreen State College, Olympia, USA

'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-antibilã/