Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World

Description

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 tells the story of what went terribly wrong in our war on germs. It 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.

Jessica Snyder Sachs is a freelance science writer. Her first book, Corpse: Nature, Forensics, and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death, was published in 2001. She lives in New Jersey.

"Ground-breaking." --Newsweek "Could hardly be more timely." --The New York Times "Brings the battle against dirt firmly into the 21st century." --The Washington Post "Explains how our obsession with cleanliness led us to this point and details how science may still find a way past the danger." --O, The Oprah Magazine