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Books : The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of BalanceIn association with Amazon.comby: Laurie Garrett  List Price: $20.00 Amazon.com's Price: $13.60 You Save: $6.40 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 614.4 EAN: 9780140250916 ISBN: 0140250913 Label: Penguin (Non-Classics) Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics) Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 768 Publication Date: October 01, 1995 Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics) Sales Rank: 8473 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: A critically acclaimed study documents the outbreaks of newly discovered diseases around the globe, such as HIV, Lassa, and Ebola, and explores the social and environmental deterioration that helps to keep such viruses alive. Reprint. Tour. NYT. Amazon.com Review: Where's your next disease coming from? From anywhere in the world--from overflowing sewage in Cairo, from a war zone in Rwanda, from an energy-efficient office building in California, from a pig farm in China or North Carolina. "Preparedness demands understanding," writes Pulitzer-winning journalist Laurie Garrett, and in this precursor to Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health, she shows a clear understanding of the patterns lying beneath the new diseases in the headlines (AIDS, Lyme) and the old ones resurgent (tuberculosis, cholera). As the human population explodes, ecologies collapse and simplify, and disease organisms move into the gaps. As globalization continues, diseases can move from one country to another as fast as an airplane can fly. While the human race battles itself ... the advantage moves to the microbes' court. They are our predators and they will be victorious if we, Homo sapiens, do not learn how to live in a rational global village that affords the microbes few opportunities. Her picture is not entirely bleak. Epidemics grow when a disease outbreak is amplified--by contaminated water supplies, by shared needles, by recirculated air, by prostitution. And controlling the amplifiers of disease is within our power; it's a matter of money, people, and will. --Mary Ellen Curtin Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Good, but longThis was an excellent book to learn about the emerging hemorrhagic viruses. It also talks about the interactions between humans and microbes and how humans induce their own diseases. What I did not like about this book was the long chapter about HIV/AIDS. It was long and outdated, since numerous advances have been made since the publication of this book. If you are buying the book to learn about HIV/AIDS, buy a more up to date book. Rating:  - This Should Be Required Reading HS LevelI first read this book shortly after it came out about 12 years ago. I was so angry and scared after realizing the real situation for global disease and treatments or lack thereof. I recently was sorting through books to sell and came across this again. I reread it and became even more angry and frustrated and scared. I think this should be a required text for high school history/science. I think the American public has become immune to any kind of "wake up call" as regards our environment and ... Read More Rating: - InspiringIn nearly 700 well researched pages, Laurie Garrett has managed to turn a usually dry subject into a gripping tale of disease-warriors combating humanity's oldest enemies. This is only the tip of the iceberg for any respectable medical professional, but for the lay-reader this book contains a wealth of information that is readable and easily digestible. By turning topics like the Ebola virus, Genetic Engineering and Toxic Shock Syndrome into an easy read, Laurie Garrett transforms complex ... Read More Rating: - More riveting than The Hot Zone If you liked The Hot Zone, you will love this book. The Hot Zone told the scary story of a variant of Ebola that turned out to be harmless to humans. The Coming Plague narrates the history of little-known but lethal diseases such as Machupo, Ebola, Four-Corners Hantavirus, Lassa Fever, Marburg and others. In each of these cases, the list of victims was relatively small, but the onset and progress of these illnesses were frightful. Garrett examines how "disease cowboys" worked backward to patient zero, followed ... Read More Rating: - Fascinating and frighteningThis book, when it came out, pointed out the coming problems in our medical system like antibiotic resistance, long before it became common knowledge. But it also suggests that as we continue to transform our environment, new plagues and diseases will continue to threaten our existence. My only criticism of the book is that it was a difficult read, because it is very densely packed with information. This book requires patience to read, but it is well worth it. Browse for similar items by category:
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