Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic 1st Edition by Matt McCarthy (PDF)

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International Bestseller”An amazing, informative book that changes our perspective on medicine, microbes and our future.”–Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, New York Times bestselling author of The Emperor of All MaladiesA New York Times bestselling author shares this exhilarating story of cutting-edge science and the race against the clock to find new treatments in the fight against the antibiotic-resistant bacteria known as superbugs.Physician, researcher, and ethics professor Matt McCarthy is on the front lines of a groundbreaking clinical trial testing a new antibiotic to fight lethal superbugs, bacteria that have built up resistance to the life-saving drugs in our rapidly dwindling arsenal. This trial serves as the backdrop for the compulsively readable Superbugs, and the results will impact nothing less than the future of humanity.Dr. McCarthy explores the history of bacteria and antibiotics, from Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin, to obscure sources of innovative new medicines (often found in soil samples), to the cutting-edge DNA manipulation known as CRISPR, bringing to light how we arrived at this juncture of both incredible breakthrough and extreme vulnerability. We also meet the patients whose lives are hanging in the balance, from Remy, a teenager with a dangerous and rare infection, to Donny, a retired New York City firefighter with a compromised immune system, and many more.The proverbial ticking clock will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Can Dr. McCarthy save the lives of his patients infected with the deadly bacteria, who have otherwise lost all hope?

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Highly intellectual and provides clear insight to the state of emergency on antibiotic resistance..

⭐Superbugs is a well-written deep-dive into the fascinating history of antibiotics and a glimpse into the frontline struggle of doctors and scientists versus some seriously nasty strains of infectious bacteria and fungus.Sorry guys and gals, this is another doom and gloom book review! Lately, I’ve been reviewing some books about the very troubling and very real threats to your life and wellbeing perpetuated by Iatrogenic mainstream medicine and bad science.The author could have used his platform, this book which will probably be read by some policy-makers and purse-string pullers, to advocate for the NIH funding the badly needed science on red light therapy or other antibiotic alternatives. But I suspect that would not be great for Dr. McCarthy’s career.The book was very well written and a pageturner which is always a pleasant surprise when reading a non-fiction science book. The author illustrates the complicated science with creative metaphors and storytelling. Non-doctors (and even non-college graduates, like myself) can read the book and understand the microscopic war we are losing to virulent, antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Minus one star because this book is long on doom and gloom while lacking in solutions and innovative thinking.

⭐I’m one page in and already a disappointment. I’m an ER doctor and expected at least some educational component since they just interviewed him on COVID 19. He was grandstanding on CNN saying how we need to have point of care testing for COVID immediately and it was a failure of the CDC. Don’t get me wrong, not a fan of Trump or his policies and hope that they catch up with this disease. But that’s just nonsense. Point of care tests are not the answer and are fraught with error because collected improperly. Reliable testing yes, as fast as it can be produced. Not sure if this guy has a conflict of interest what. Might want to check his stock portfolio. Way to emphatic about that as opposed to not traveling, cough hygiene, hand hygiene, wear a mask in close confines, etc.But the book….he suggests he was called to the ER to see an infected bullet wound. Like it got infected immediately after the kid was shot somehow. And not only that, the culture results are back in the ER. Culture and sensitivity results take at least 24 hours to come back with even preliminary results. This just creates fear and unrealistic expectations for any non medical reader. Even. If it is artistic license to make it interesting. And it causes him to lose credibility with medical professionals. Dude, reign it in and dont sensationalize. Your career will benefit much more from it. I almost never write reviews but wanted to rely on an expert as CNN put you out to be. I feel suckered. Hope you give the public the info they need on your next interview.

⭐The topic of this book is timely and interesting. However, the author jumps around time lines with no warning and little context making it difficult to keep track of the ideas that are being explored. The entire work also suffers from poor editing.

⭐a technical story told in layman”s easy to understand language.

⭐I like all the information I can get!

⭐I received a free copy of this book through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program.Superbugs is a fascinating book, and I’m glad I had the chance to review it. This book is a window into the management, and hopefully curing, of difficult antibiotic-resistant infections from the point-of-view of a physician who sees the worst the world has to offer. McCarthy wrote it in a chatty, personable, and slightly ADD style that probably makes it more accessible. This is a difficult thing to get right with a work of popular science, which I take this book to be.There is an infamous rule of thumb that including one mathematical formula in your book will reduce your readers by half. Each additional formula continues the process of exponential decay. McCarthy has clearly decided to maximize his potential readership by avoiding mathematical formulae, or worse, skeletal formulae of organic molecules.However, while he doesn’t show them, he talks about them a lot. If you know what is going on, you can either envision the diagrams or look them up, but organic chemistry isn’t needed to tell the stories that McCarthy wants to tell.The first story is McCarthy’s work with Allergan on the antibiotic dalbavancin, and his journey to learn how to write a protocol for a clinical trial and gain consent from often frightened and bewildered patients who show up in Emergency Rooms with methicillin-resistant Staph Aureus infections. His meandering style allows him to digress into the second story, which is a capsule history of the development of antibiotics, and the sometimes checkered history of human experimentation in medicine.His history of antibiotic development includes well-known figures like Alexander Fleming, and the overlooked, like Elizabeth Lee Hazen and Rachel Brown, who developed nystatin, the first antifungal drug.The book is probably worth it just for this well-done short summary of the powerhouses of modern pharmaceuticals [and more evidence for my theory that the greatest period of technological advancement in the twentieth century was between 1920-1950]By the early 1950s, ninety percent of the prescriptions filled by patients were for drugs that had not even existed in 1938. pg 101 [citing Miracle Cure by William Rosen 2017]However, you also get a good look at how medicine is practiced in the United States today, from the practitioner’s point-of-view. Physicians need to manage conflicts of interest, like the portion of McCarthy’s salary that is paid by Allergan and other corporations, patients that are bound and determined to pursue courses of treatment that the evidence doesn’t support, and the sheer soul-crushing burden of seeing so much suffering day-in and day-out.We Americans expect our doctors to be superhuman: to work without rest, to diagnose without fail, and resist the siren call of wealth. Doctors receive enormous deference for our unrealistic expectations, but a subtext of McCarthy’s book is the toll this takes on our often genuinely selfless and dedicated physicians. Who do in fact accept honoraria and speaking fees from pharmaceutical companies and miss their children while they work long hours.Another interesting aspect of American medical practice is its insularity. Nearly every reference in McCarthy’s book is from a medical journal, which is the mental world of most physicians. However, medicine might progress faster if physicians were to be a little bit more widely read. For example, McCarthy devotes a fair bit of space to the research of Vincent Fischetti, who isolates enzymes from bacteriophages. But phage therapy was a thing before antibiotics were invented, and was largely forgotten in the initial enthusiasm for antibiotics. Phages and adjacent technologies would be a useful adjunct to antibiotics, but medicine, meaning mostly expert physician opinion, has been pointedly disinterested for seventy years or more. I appreciate that McCarthy is trying to do something about that, but reading and citing mostly medical journals is only going to perpetuate the attitude that pushed useful therapies aside because it wasn’t the hot new thing, or because it came from the wrong field.All in all, I enjoyed this book. I think McCarthy did a fine job making the history of antibiotics accessible, and was remarkably honest about himself and his field, frankly admitting the challenges physicians face today. This book could have been dry, but it wasn’t, so I am willing to embrace the rapid alternation between the present and the past. McCarthy made this style work. One can learn a lot about the world, past and present, from this book.In a final note, there is a short letter tucked in my review copy that public results for McCarthy’s dalba study are expected on or around May 21st, just under a week from the publication of this review. I hope everything went well, because I like having options when the bacteria evolve faster than us.

⭐I imagine Superbugs has been propelled higher in the Amazon sales rankings by the current Coronavirus crisis pandemic.But the book is mainly about bacteria and fungal infections, seen through the eyes of a study on a new anti-biotic Dalba. Bacteria are become very more clever, the efflux pumps able to eject certain anti-biotics. Without new tools to fight them, we will be overcome with a wave of untreatable infections.The book is part history, part personal story and part science all making for a great, easy and informative read. Matt McCarthy comes across rather likeable and pragmatic, suspicious of profiteering goals of Big Pharma but understanding that antibiotic research is a loss making business.The development of antibiotics from Fleming to more modern day attempts is covered and well written. We get to hear about Lysin, an exciting development of an enzyme derived from viruses that dissolve the cell walls of bacteria, from which they do not develop resistance.The author also writes about his working relationship with a man named Tom Walsh, who seems an gargantuan contributer to the sector and indeed to his patients. At times I thought the volume of patient detail was detracting from the scientific story but it’s clear that Matt McCarthy wants to put names to data. People matter to him.It’s a highly readable and informative book but I would have liked a firm conclusion and a bit more cohesive direction that the book seems to lack. We get images of the chemical structure of some of the drugs but there aren’t any explanations as to why we are shown them or what’s interesting about them.You won’t find much information about viruses in here really so if you had planned to read it merely to impress colleagues on your Coronavirus induced video call, then perhaps not. Regardless it is one of the better pop science books in the medical category I have read and very informative. Well recommended.

⭐Highly recommend this important and surprisingly gripping book. The WHO has said that superbugs could kill more people by 2050 than cancer and heart disease combined. Yet, we hear little about them. Dr McCarthy lets you see what it’s like for doctors on the frontlines trying to treat infections that have become resistant to standard treatments as he sets up a clinical trial for a new drug. If you are new to the topic, it’s also a wonderful lesson in the history of antibiotics. Although it’s a serious scientific topic, it is told in a very personal way (with lots of stories about individual patients). It’s highly readable and a great introduction to a topic we’re all going to be hearing a lot more about in the future.

⭐A great read highlighting our current situation. Brings awareness to the reader and makes you think twice about unnecessary antibiotic use.

⭐Includes stories one can relate to, as a patient and as clinician/researcher. Finding answers will require collaboration across multiple disciplines.

⭐Overview of antibiotics and superbugs. Very nice and interesting lecture

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