Confused or worried about antibiotics? This Harvard infectious disease expert has some answers

Should you use antibiotics? What’s antibiotic resistance? Can the medication really interfere with the gut and other systems of the body?

If you have questions about antibiotics, you’re not alone — and Mary E. Wilson, a Harvard University professor and infectious disease expert, probably answers those question in “Anti­biotics: What Everyone Needs to Know.”

Newly published, the book is like a mega-FAQ about all things antibiotic, from how they were discovered to what we’ll do if they lose their ability to kill bacteria.

Though they didn’t become widely available until the end of World War II, antibiotics have since become ubiquitous. They’ve also become steeped in myth and misconception. Overprescribed for much of their history, antibiotics are in danger of becoming moot because of the evolution of bacteria that can resist them.

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