Living in a Microbial World

Microbes – can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Increasingly, we’re finding out that our microbiota (the microbes that live on us) are essential for our wellbeing – they provide us with nutrients and vitamins and play a key role in developing our immune system.

Microbes – can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Increasingly, we’re finding out that our microbiota (the microbes that live on us) are essential for our wellbeing – they provide us with nutrients and vitamins and play a key role in developing our immune system.

From Eugenia Bone, the critically acclaimed author of Mycophilia, comes an approachable, highly personal look at our complex relationship with the microbial world.

Antimicrobial resistance is recognised among the world’s most challenging problems. Despite its global spread, Africa, specifically sub-Saharan Africa, is the most affected by this malaise. Poor living conditions and inadequate access to sanitation and potable water supplies are among contributing factors that have influenced a high disease burden on the continent, requiring extensive antimicrobials. Weak health systems and the absence of firm policies further aggravate the problem, as the use of antimicrobials is mostly unregulated. The increasing demand for animal protein to meet the starving populations’ demands has also influenced the use of these antimicrobials, including those banned on other continents, for food animal production. The ripple effect of indiscriminate use in humans and animals is the massive discharge of antimicrobials, their residues, antimicrobial-resistant microorganisms and their associated genes into the environment.