Muhammad H. Zaman is Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health at Boston University.
A useful, engaging opus - New York Times Book Review Antibiotic resistance is a global problem-a disease present in Karachi one day may arrive in Reno, Nev., the next-yet the same connectivity that has spread resistance has eased collaboration across borders. Mr. Zaman's optimism...is welcome, though not always easy to share. Still, his sense of urgency is irresistible. - Wall Street Journal A vivid portrayal of our fight against an opponent that has been around for more than 3 billion years. Zaman, a professor of biomedical engineering and international health, portrays a conflict-between humans and harmful strains of bacteria-that has played out in plagues and epidemics over millennia. - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) I was born under the antibiotic umbrella and took effective antibiotics for granted. Yet we still battle pneumonia, which still kills 800,000 children per year, due to a lack of access. Meanwhile, there is excess use of antibiotics, in humans and animals, causing the problem of drug-resistant infections. This book tells you the story of the people who set up the antibiotic umbrella and the challenge to keep it up-for all of us, together, as one humanity. Because no wall will ever protect us against drug-resistant infections. - Stefan Swartling Peterson, chief of health, UNICEF If you read one book this year, please make it this one. A breathtaking, inspiring, and very personal account of one of the greatest challenges of our time-drug-resistant infections-an issue that will undermine the whole of modern medicine unless we act, and we act now. This book is about what has made modern medicine possible-the ability to control and treat infections. This book fills one with hope that science can overcome the challenge, politicians can act, policies can work, and drug-resistant infections do not need to be the end of modern medicine. It is enthralling, engaging, and beautifully written. - Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome Trust Biography of Resistance is a sweeping and engaging history of the tango humanity dances with bacteria-which both make human life possible and have the capacity to end it. Our efforts in the past hundred years to gain the upper hand have led to remarkable successes-but now may be backfiring as antimicrobial resistance looms as the biggest public health challenge of our time. Dr. Zaman's story is timely and urgent. - Kathleen Sebelius, former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services