Full Description
In Acts of Resistance, Katharina Rynkiewich explores the fight to save the utility of antibiotic medicines amid global antimicrobial resistance. This engaging ethnography follows bacteria, patients, and practitioners as they weave in and out of North American medical institutions. Through an examination of the social dynamics and ethical challenges of everyday antibiotic use, the author expands on the limitations of good intentions in current antibiotic stewardship policy. Her ethnographic account shows the lived experience of multiple central figures as she shifts setting and tone, ultimately deepening our understanding of the global antimicrobial resistance crisis as emergency.
Due to the global scale of impact related to antimicrobial resistance, holding industries and institutions accountable is difficult but essential. With new and reemerging multidrug-resistant organisms making their homes within institutions and in the community, tracing the origins of an infection can be an insurmountable challenge. Rynkiewich demonstrates how "microbial highways" coexist along human highways, providing an apt example of how multidrug-resistant organisms spread across hospitals, communities, and entire regions.
Contents
Prologue
Introduction: Exploring How Two Hospitals, St. John's and County, Illuminate the History, Present, and Future of Antibiotic Prescribing
Chapter 1: Microbes, Infection, and Antimicrobial Resistance: Surveillance and Intervention
Chapter 2: The Social Dynamics of Antibiotic Prescribing: Practices and Infection Management
Chapter 3: Antimicrobial Stewardship in Action: The Structure of Policy and Programming
Chapter 4: Medical Practitioners and the Pressure to Behave: Resisting Responsibilization
Conclusion
