Killer Superbugs: The Story of Drug-Resistant Diseases (Issues in Focus)

Day, Nancy

ISBN 10: 0766015882 ISBN 13: 9780766015883

Publisher: Enslow Pub Inc, 2001

Synopsis

-- These over-100-page titles present the facts and analyze some of the most controversial topics in today's news.
-- Offers excellent and up-to-date information for reports or debates.
-- Helps teenagers to begin developing critical thinking skills.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Gr 6-9-This cogent overview examines the growing number of infectious diseases that are becoming impervious to drugs. Day identifies the major drug-resistant organisms and diseases causing harm today, explains what antibiotics are and how they work to either kill or inhibit the growth of microbes, and describes several ways that bacteria and other organisms fight antibiotics through gene mutation, dormancy, etc. The author goes on to highlight many of the practices and conditions that have accelerated this process. The book ends by outlining the efforts of scientists to develop new and more potent antibiotics to fight off the "superbugs," and also mentions the alarming possibilities of biological weapons made from genetically engineered bacteria. This well-organized and lucid title does a good job of explaining a complicated health problem; scientific terms and principles are explained as they appear in the text, usually in parentheses. A minor disappointment is that many of the almost two dozen black-and-white photographs are only marginally relevant to the text. Howard and Margery Facklam's Bacteria (21st Century, 1995) briefly mentions antibiotics and drug-resistant diseases, but not in detail. As the recent anthrax scare attests, Day's book is timely indeed.

Karey Wehner, formerly at San Francisco Public Library

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Enslow Pub Inc
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0766015882
• ISBN 13: 9780766015883
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 128