In this monograph, journalist Rinke van den Brink takes a closer look at the limitations and risks of today's antibiotic use. Though all developed societies have grown accustomed to successfully treating bacterial infections with these wonder drugs, the author focuses on the increasing number of antibiotic-resistant infections. By examining recent mass outbreaks, readers will gain a better understanding of the global impact of antimicrobial resistance - one of the most serious public health threats today.

Following this somewhat disquieting review of the status quo, interviews with a number of specialists provide an outlook on possible solutions. In a world that is more connected than ever, partnerships between different healthcare systems are becoming all the more important. Rinke van den Brink uses the example of a border-spanning collaboration between the Netherlands and Germany to demonstrate how effective lines of communication can be established.

The book offers a wealth of useful background information for healthcare personnel. Not only does it share insights into the functional microbe-antibiotic relationship; it also discusses how clinics can effectively address outbreaks, helping readers to learn from past experiences and develop effective new strategies.

Rinke van den Brink (1955) is a journalist and writer. Since 2005 he works as a health editor at NOS News Netherlands, in a multimedia editorial staff. He published his first articles in 1977 and is a professional journalist, since 1982. He worked for different radio-stations in the Netherlands, was correspondent in Amsterdam for different foreign and French-spoken newspapers and radio- and tv-stations. He worked long-time for the Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland and wrote four books on extreme-right political movements in Western-Europe, over the past years. March 2013, he published Het einde van de antibiotica (The end of antibiotics), after several years of research. This book on antimicrobial resistance and infectious diseases was strongly revised and enlarged in 2015 for a German edition.