For 50 years, modern medicine has waged war on bacteria with antibiotics. These drugs founded the fortunes of the drug industry and shaped the medical profession. But antibiotics put at risk our ability to resist disease. New plagues of infections caused by superbugs (bacteria that have learned to resist antibiotics) now threaten the population's health. This book suggests that antibiotics do more harm than good. By the year 2000, up to 50,000 tons of antibiotics will be used worldwide on humans and animals every year; the abuse of antibiotics in developing countries create superbugs that travel over the world causing new types of disease. The overuse and abuse of antibiotics has created a disturbance in the natural world that could have a serious and damaging long-term effect. The book includes an A-Z of antibiotics and their effects.