Book Review: Biography of Resistance By Muhammad H. Zaman

If you're like me and believe everything happens for a reason than you might enjoy what I'm about to note or maybe not but I'm going off the beaten path to discuss the current state of affairs so bear with me.

It's the end of April 2020 as I type this knowing a Worldwide Pandemic that claims to have originated in Wuhan China is upon us all.

The Sars is just one major concern that I'll discuss which began in 2002 and has no vaccine to date nor does one exist for the now commonly referred to Corona Virus (Covid 19) AKA SARS-CoV-2 RNA which has claimed to date 963,276 across the United States of America. The first victim was now determined to have passed from a ruptured heart which was unheard of till now. https://www.ibtimes.com/coronavirus-u...
In addition, there's been much talk about the inference to the Spanish Flu pandemic which many of those during that time died from the pneumomia.

Now, I digress folks because I know many argue over healthcare but it sucks. I'm sorry to burst the bubble because my mother is retired RN OBGYN worked multiple jobs and raised four kids but I can only speak from experience. I have a 20 yr + friendship with Pneumonia, Mild Asthma, Acute Bronchitis (or the newly confirmed Chronic -yes it took Dr's this long to finally call it what it is), Mild Copd, plus what was hidden in dr notes as a computer generated never informed to patient HUS (fatal blood disorder) with microcytic hypochromic anemia and kidney failure to name a few. I'm also prediabetic, suffer from Raynaud's Phenomenon in (L-thumb) only- of course told to wear a glove but never confirmed- and told about possibilities but zero confirmations as doctors/PT's said,"You're fine- it's normal wear and tear" for a forty six year old.

Thank you Spinal Surgeon for MRI showed severe spinal stenosis (aka facet arthropathy, central annular fissure, moderate/severe foraminal narrowing,disc bulges, and more). Don't forget the thyroid nodule pressing on my throat too at 2.8x1.7 cm) uncovered during such testing with the no blood flow in thumb aka Digit 1= flat.

Now back to the show as I digress this book was more about the history of the pathogens, the scientists who uncovered them, and the antibiotics that may or may not exist or for which have been abused and overused to the point nothing works medically to stomp them out.

I'm not a fan of the doctors not just because of 20 plus years of misdiagnosis but also because of the pedal pusher drug poppers that would rather have a nation of dopers than a nation of healthy vibrant functioning individuals.

This is of course a matter of opinion but I've yet to find one that hasn't pushed for strong steroids, oxycontin (after giving birth) or the number of other nonsense meds like those which numb the pain such as cortisone. Non of which solve the problem they mask the problem. Not to mention the fact that China makes all our meds & antibiotics so we've become a nation of dependents. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/bu...
So this leads to my next point because the antibiotics have been prescribed to me even when they didn't know whether it was bacterial in nature& so toss a ton of antibiotics ie. azithromycin or whatever might work. We need to fix the problem in America not kick the can down the road.

Yet, the cycle repeats and every year I wind up in ER so I took the option to demand a flu shot, a pneumonia shot, and every other shot on the market. Since, I received the run around initially I continued to put pressure and received those two shots.

Low and behold I then was diagnosed with INFLUENZA A this past January 5th and it was wicked beyond words with nausea, diarrhea, heart palps, clammy skin but no fever, and more. It required a trip to ER and IV hookup with EKG that resulted in being told I'm fine and sent home. The next day I knew I wasn't fine because of course I'm a pro with upper respiratory so I knew the signs and I had them all from the dark urine, to the night sweats, and the massive headache.

Upon glancing at my file I uncovered the test results (yes, they never called me to report test) and found I was confirmed with the flu and that I had sinus tachycardia with several blood tests that had been issued (which I had no idea were conducted on my behalf) including Troponin T, D-Dimer, and CBC/Diff (which is always done up on me) as I have high RBC, Monos,Anion Gap, with low Co2 and potassium to name a few.

Now, you might say ok good for you but why do you bring up all this personal information and that's to make one point.

You are the best judge of your own body so listen to it and fight for it.
This book was a great introduction to the history behind the pathogens and the people but our healthcare system is below grade.

What I noticed is too many young people conducting themselves as if they have years of experience and diagnosing without proper credentials as was my case with a simple prescription for an emergency inhaler in which the prescribing physician was so knew she hadn't filed her paperwork to be allowed to fill prescriptions.

So the importance of this book on antibiotics is that we have a ton of work that still needs to be done.

Having an antibiotic to end this nightmare we are now in should've been completed 18 yrs earlier but with financing, staffing, and the political red tape I'm sure it wasn't .
Now we race against the clock in hopes of saving lives....

This is a huge mess that we should've seen coming and I'm not passing the buck but I'm sure they knew the end result and it is now too late as this wake up call has cost countless lives at the hands of profit. 

The author has noted several instances of the over reach and dilemmas and I can only hope we learn a lesson when this is all complete. “It will be like the great plague of the middle ages, the influenza pandemic of 1918, the AIDS crisis of the 1990s, and the Ebola epidemic of 2014 all combined into a single threat,” Muhammad H. Zaman warns. 

The answer to why and how microbes are turning into these superbugs needs to be further examined with a combined interests into the evolution, history, science, and human behavior. 

A fab read for all to consider.