Killer Germs - Hardcover

Dr Pete Moore is a medical journalist and Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Bristol. He is Chairman of the Medical Journalists Association and winner of numerous awards for his journalism, including the MJA Tony Thistlethwaite Award for his most recent book, "Blood and Justice," He is an official rapporteur at Windsor Castle and private meetings at the House of Lords. He has a PhD in physiology and has held a range of post-doctoral research fellowships with The Wellcome Trust and British Heart Foundation. He also lectures in ethics.

Moore provides the facts we should know, rather than the ones we want to hear, about infectious diseases. In the U.S. between 1980 and 1992, deaths from infectious diseases rose 50 percent, and during the past 20 years, 30 new infectious diseases have been identified. This is no scare piece, though. Moore's statements are documented; even when discussing, say, bacteriophages, he is clear and compelling; and he includes just enough history to make the important investigators and their methods come alive. Major current problems he identifies include many having to do with antibiotics: they are overused (hence growing bacterial resistance to them); misused in animal feeds and elsewhere; and underused by patients, who stop taking them as soon as they feel better. They should be available only by prescription, Moore insists. Equally sobering are Moore's descriptions of Ebola, malaria, and plague, which instruct as they bring us face to face with the revolting and dangerous aspects of those diseases. Moore also offers practical advice. One of the best recent books on its subject. William Beatty
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