"[Desowitz's] stories...rank among the best current examples of medical detective prose."—BooklistTwenty years ago the world slept, confident that biomedical science would protect it from devastating plagues. Our wake-up call sounded at the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. Then came more unfamiliar pathogens in its wake, such as the West Nile virus. Meanwhile, the neglected diseases of the third world, including malaria and African sleeping sickness, festere...

“Gives the reader the feeling of being granted a ringside seat to an exciting series of events. . . .This eminent scientist and writer conveys his enthusiasm for the subject. . . .He has managed to entertain, educate, and enthuse without either trivializing the complexity of the subject or underestimating the intelligence of the reader.” —British Medical JournalDr. Desowitz describes the revolutionary discoveries made by Jenner, Pasteur, Metchnikoff, and E...

We live in a medical fool's paradise, comforted, believing our sanitized Western world is safe from the microbes and parasites of the tropics. Not so, nor was it ever so.Past--and present--tell us that tropical diseases are as American as the heart attack; yellow fever lived happily for centuries in Philadelphia. Malaria liked it fine in Washington, not to mention in the Carolinas where it took right over. The Ebola virus stopped off in Baltimore, and the Mexican p...

The medical tapestry of the world is full of organisms too small to see, carried by flying and creeping creatures too numerous to eradicate.A while ago, DDT and the antimalarial drug chloroquine seemed sure to make us all safe from such invisible assault.It was not to be. The mosquito has become resistant to DDT; malaria is on the rise; although tapeworms rarely turn up any longer in the most lovingly prepared New York City gefilte fish, a worm may inhabit ...

"Reads like a murder mystery…[Desowitz] writes with uncommon lucidity and verse, leaving the reader with a vivid understanding of malaria and other tropical diseases, and the ways in which culture, climate and politics have affected their spread and containment." —New York TimesWhy, Robert S. Desowitz asks, has biotechnical research on malaria produced so little when it had promised so much? An expert in tropical diseases, Desowtiz searches for answers in ...

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize | A New York Times Editor's Choice“[A] grounded, bracingly intelligent study” —NaturePrizewinning science journalist Sonia Shah presents a startling examination of the pandemics that have ravaged humanity—and shows us how history can prepare us to confront the most serious acute global health emergency of our time.Over the past fifty years, more than th...

This deep dive into humanity's very long fight against malaria is "a vivid and compelling history with a message that's entirely relevant today" (Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction).In a time when every emergent disease inspires waves of panic, why aren't we doing more to eradicate one of our oldest foes? And how does a parasitic disease that we've known how to prevent for more than a century still infect 500 million pe...

Disease is the true serial killer of human history: the horrors of bubonic plague, cholera, syphilis, smallpox, tuberculosis and the like have claimed more lives and caused more misery than the depredations of warfare, famine and natural disasters combined.Murderous Contagion tells the compelling and at times unbearably moving story of the devastating impact of diseases on humankind - from the Black Death of the 14th century to the Spanish flu of 1918-19 and the AIDS epide...

"Fascinating . . . Surprising entertainment, combining deep learning with dad jokes . . . [Schutt] is a natural teacher with an easy way with metaphor.”—The Wall Street JournalIn this lively, unexpected look at the hearts of animals—from fish to bats to humans—American Museum of Natural History zoologist Bill Schutt tells an incredible story of evolution and scientific progress.We join Schutt on a tour from the origins of circulation, still evident...

Containing important information about the coronavirus, this comprehensive, easy-to-follow primer on pandemics, epidemics, and the panics they ignite around the world also shares solutions for a safer, healthier future.“A quiet little gem of understanding in a cacophony of panic and fear.”—Quill & Quire, STARRED reviewAuthored by a leading epidemiologist, this engrossing book answers our questions about animal diseases that ...

From the ravages of the Ebola virus in Zaire to outbreaks of pneumonic plague in India and drug-resistant TB in New York City, contagious diseases are fighting back against once-unconquerable modern medicine. Public concern about infectious disease is on the rise as newspapers trumpet the arrivals of new germs and the reemergence of old ones.In A Field Guide to Germs, Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Wayne Biddle brings readers face to face with nearly one hundred of ...

Our health and habitat are being threatened by biological invaders moving at unprecedented speed. Avian flu and its potential to cause a human pandemic is only one example of a worldwide menace unwittingly unleashed by the forces of globalization. The combination of unfettered free trade in living organisms, increased mobility, and urban crowding has created an increasingly volatile environment for the world’s 6.5 billion people. Nikiforuk argues that it shouldn’t take a pandemic to make u...