The War against Bacteria
A health disaster and how to fight it
Original title: Bakteriekrigen
Om helsekatastrofen som møter oss og hvordan vi kan bekjempe den
Publisher: Forlaget Press, 2020
Sweden, Modernista Group
World English, MIT Press
Portugal, Leya
Antibiotic Resistance is an insidious, worldwide epidemic that threatens to destroy the global health system from within. WHO warns: without antibiotics, medical science is going to be set back 100 years in time. Without antibiotics, even simple surgery will be impossible.
Diseases such as pneumonia, whooping cough and scarlet fever will again be very deadly – even cholera can return as global pandemic. By year 2050, 10 million people will be at risk every year. The biggest health disaster the world has seen is right at your doorstep. Yet we hardly ever talk about the threat that surrounds us.
Huge amounts of antibiotics are used in the agricultural industry to secure cheaper meat for consumers – while research shows how resistant bacteria easily spread from animals to humans, through water, food and soil.
But The War against Bacteria is also a fascinating exploration of the opportunities we have for solving the crisis. The author talks to health care workers in Tromsø, Georgia, Poland about how antibiotic use can be drastically reduced. He visits farmers and agricultural leaders in the UK, Belgium and Norway to learn more about animal husbandry without antibiotics. And he explores the forgotten cures and the new knowledge about the nature of the bacteria that makes it possible to imagine a medicine much less dependent on antibiotics.
The second print run is now out with a new foreword on antibiotics and Covid-19.
Video of Erik Martiniussen presenting The War against Bacteria
Page-turner about the silent plague. The impressive "The War against Bacteria" is scary reading, but no dystopia. …He impresses with his clarity, thoroughness and a huge amount of substance – and not at least the linguistic clarity that makes the book easily readable.
He has written a sober book where the facts speak for themselves. The result is natural science research journalism of highest class.
It is an art to write about complex problems for an ordinary reader without it being flat out academic.
Bok365
Already now in March I can say: This book about bacteria is one of the best of the year! …I bow in awe for writer and journalist Erik Martiniussen and his hunt for bacteria. This is a great book about some of our smallest enemies and friends.
If you don't think the corona pandemic is frightening enough, Erik Martiniussen convinces with a highly up-to-date book about the growing danger of resistant bacteria.
Erik Martiniussen
Erik Martiniussen is a Norwegian feature journalist and author. He has previously written the book Greenhouse Effect (2013) – in which he shows that there are major flaws and shortcomings in the international climate emissions trading system
Bakteriekrigen, 2020