# The Killers Within

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/michael-shnayerson/the-killers-within/9780751539493

![The Killers Within](https://quivercdn.com/covers/sphere/michael-shnayerson/the-killers-within_978-07-5153-949-3.jpg?v=2026-05-19%2008%3A14%3A37)

- Book: [The Killers Within](https://www.bookquiver.com/michael-shnayerson/the-killers-within) ([The Killers Within.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/michael-shnayerson/the-killers-within.md))
- Authors: [Michael Shnayerson](https://www.bookquiver.com/michael-shnayerson)
- Publisher: Sphere
- ISBN: 978-07-5153-949-3
- Pages: 1
- Published: 2006-08-03
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

In June 1999, a 33-year-old woman walked into a San Francisco hospital complaining of acute pain in her legs. The day before, she had what she thought was a flu: fever, dizziness and abdominal pain. Within two hours of her admission to hospital, she was dead, and unrecognisable. The diagnosis: flesh-eating bacteria. Bacteria are one of the most basic life forms on earth, yet they pose a threat to mankind that not even the most sophisticated scientific techniques can contain. The book charts the competition between the drug companies to develop a new super-antibiotic, and the race to save lives and make millions. It also describes the surprising return of a technique that predates penicillin - the development of a phage or virus that kills the bacteria from within.