In this brief viewpoint, I present four examples from my life in the practice of medicine and infectious diseases that illustrate both the miracle of antibiotics and the despair when they fail. There is the patient with pneumococcal pneumonia that was rapidly cured but also a disastrous outbreak of highly resistant Pseudomonas infection in a ward of severely burned patients where antibiotic treatment was ultimately futile. I note the utility of a new antibiotic in treating otherwise highly resistant Serratia infections. Finally, I discuss a patient with extensively resistant tuberculosis who came under my care.

中文翻译：

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抗生素价值主张的个人观点。

用这种简短的观点，我列举了我一生中在医学和传染病实践中的四个例子，这些例子既说明了抗生素的奇迹，也说明了抗生素失败后的绝望。肺炎球菌性肺炎患者迅速治愈，但在严重烧伤的患者病房中爆发了高耐药性假单胞菌感染灾难性发作，最终抗生素治疗无效。我注意到一种新型抗生素在治疗原本高度耐药的沙雷氏菌感染中的效用。最后，我讨论了一名在我的护理下具有广泛耐药性的患者。