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Title: The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett ISBN: 0-14-025091-3 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (50 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Advantage: Microbe
Comment: "The Coming Plague" is 620 pages of densely-packed text on humanity's war against its deadliest enemies. Throughout the twentieth century and into the new millenium, we've given our microscopic enemies glorious new opportunities to exploit us, whether it be through war, slash-and-burn agriculture, or stagnant water in an air-conditioning system. Laurie Garrett has written a fascinating and frightening account of some of the battles we almost won (measles and polio) and some where we appear to be in full retreat (AIDS, drug-resistant tuberculosis). Her book is especially compulsive reading when she describes the individual skirmishes in the war, e.g. a journey into the African bush to identify and treat a disease that was killing 80% of its victims, or the discovery that cholera vibrio could live inside of algae and didn't require person-to-person transmission.
Even if you live in the middle of the Canadian tundra and have sworn off eating mollusks for the rest of your life, this book hammers home the fact that you're still not safe from what used to be called 'Third World diseases'. Even as I write this review, there is a woman in an isolation chamber of a hospital in Hampton, Ontario who is gravely ill with an unknown hemorrhagic fever. The doctors don't think its Ebola Fever, but they're not sure what it is, or whether any of the other passengers on the plane from Nigeria to Canada could also have been infected.
You can conclude (as I did) from "The Coming Plague" that many of us who expected to die from age-related conditions such as heart failure or cancer, may now well perish from infection. This book manages to combine the heroics of "Men against Death", the grim prophecy of "Silent Spring", and descriptions of several hair-raising, near-tragedies akin to the "Hot Zone". I highly recommend it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating
Comment: Garrett's "The Coming Plague" is a fine general survey on modern U.S. epidemilogical history and the techniques used by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.) to identify and control pathogenic microorganisms world wide. I read it years ago and it was a formative work in infuencing me to earn my M.D.
I also believe, having read extensively on the subject, that Garrett's book has given rise to a small sub-genre. Many of the author's contemporaries flagrantly take her outline without giving formal recogniton where it is due. Garrett's is the original thought on the subject.
It is written as if it were a riveting mystery but also reveals sound scientific methods as the cornerstone of modern discovery.
The author studied at Harvard's School of Public Health and tends to be quite sensitive to polical correctness, and dedicates too much space to the people who worked on HIV instead of the subject itself. It is only one chapter of an otherwise incredible work, and I skipped most of it since it gets mired in names, dates and political cudos and condemnations. Stick with the science and mystery and you will enjoy it-- Even some of my non-medical microphobic friends loved it.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Coming Plague
Comment: Outstanding! This book is an excellent read! I read the Hot Zone 2 years ago and this is even better. Garrett gives fantastic insight and detail concerning many deadly viruses that have attacked humankind in the 20th century and continue to threaten us. Not only this, but she goes on to highlight the feats and bravery of the scientist that have gone to battle with these horrific microbes over the past century. A stunning account of how disease is a part of nature, yet we as humans often aid to its spread. A sobering, eye opening book. As unsettling as it is, some nights it was hard to put down. One of the best books I've ever read. Bravo for Ms. Garrett
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Title: Betrayal of Trust : The Collapse of Global Public Health by Laurie Garrett ISBN: 0786884401 Publisher: Hyperion Pub. Date: 15 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Demon in the Freezer by RICHARD PRESTON ISBN: 0345466632 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Hot Zone : A Terrifying True Story by Richard Preston ISBN: 0385479565 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 20 July, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Virus X : Tracking the New Killer Plagues by Frank Ryan ISBN: 0316763063 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 23 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
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Title: Virus Hunter : Thirty Years of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World by Mark Olshaker, C.J. Peters ISBN: 0385485581 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 13 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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