The Coming Plague
Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance
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4.4 • 35 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times bestseller
The definitive account of the infectious diseases threatening humanity by Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist Laurie Garrett
"Prodigiously researched . . . A frightening vision of the future and a deeply unsettling one." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
After decades spent assuming that the conquest of infectious disease was imminent, people on all continents now find themselves besieged by AIDS, drug-resistant tuberculosis, cholera that defies chlorine water treatment, and exotic viruses that can kill in a matter of hours.
Relying on extensive interviews with leading experts in virology, molecular biology, disease ecology, and medicine, as well as field research in sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe, Central America, and the United States, Laurie Garrett's The Coming Plague takes readers from the savannas of eastern Bolivia to the rain forests of the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo on a harrowing, fifty year journey through the history of our battles with microbes. This book is a work of investigative reportage like no other and a wake-up call to a world that has become complacent in the face of infectious disease—one that offers a sobering and prescient warning about the dangers of ignoring the coming plague.
Customer Reviews
A.R. Bethea
A great read! A wonder writer! Distant Thunder is the most interesting chapter!
Fascinating, enthralling and terrifying - simply a wonderful read!!!
Absolutely fascinating account of the seemingly sudden and mysterious emergence of all of the new and terrifying infectious diseases that invaded to world following the 1960's, just after doctors and scientists of the world had been congratulating themselves on finally eradicating the last of the killer plagues of the world.
As good a mystery story as they come, Laurie Garrett recounts the detailed and frightening story of the discovery of these horrible new diseases we read hear about in the news almost every day - HIV, Ebola (see excerpt below), Marburg, Lassa Fever, Swine Flu, Toxic Shock Syndrome, and others.
A New York Times "Notable Book of 1994," and just as relevant and current today.
Simply a wonderfully exciting, frightening yet totally entertaining read.
Five stars hands down!
On Ebola:
Excerpt from: Garrett, Laurie, "The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance." (c1995) Penguin. (Abridged)
This material is protected by copyright.
"Report from: Dr. Ngoi Mushola, Medical Director, Bumba Medical Service, Northern Frontier - Bumba Zone, Republique du Zaire
"To: Kinshasha Medical Service, Kinshasa, Republique du Zaire
"Inquiry into alarming cases in the community of Yandongi, Bumba Zone, 15–17 September 1976.
“Findings: The affliction is characterized by a high temperature around 39°C; frequent vomiting of black, digested blood, but of red blood in a few cases; diarrheal emissions initially sprinkled with blood, with only red blood near death; epistaxis [nosebleeds] now and then; retrosternal and abdominal pain and a state of stupor; prostration with heaviness in the joints; rapid evolution toward death after a period of about three days, from a state of general health.
“What Dr. Ngoi Mushola had written, though he did not know it at the time, was the first historic description of a new disease: Ebola.
"In clear, succinct, and as time would show, largely accurate terms, Dr. Ngoi had described what would prove to be the second most lethal disease of the twentieth century.
“Footnote: Untreated rabies ranks as the number one fatal disease in the world, it is 100 percent fatal."