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Emerging Infections - Potential Plagues
Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues
Martin J Blaser
2014
4.6 stars/296 reviews
12 copies in the library
Tracing one scientist’s journey toward understanding the crucial importance of the microbiome, this
revolutionary book will take readers to the forefront of trail-blazing research while revealing the damage
that overuse of antibiotics is doing to our health: contributing to the rise of obesity, asthma, diabetes, and
certain forms of cancer. In Missing Microbes, Dr. Martin Blaser invites us into the wilds of the human
microbiome where for hundreds of thousands of years bacterial and human cells have existed in a
peaceful symbiosis that is responsible for the health and equilibrium of our body. Now, this invisible eden
is being irrevocably damaged by some of our most revered medical advances—antibiotics—threatening
the extinction of our irreplaceable microbes with terrible health consequences. Taking us into both the lab
and deep into the fields where these troubling effects can be witnessed firsthand, Blaser not only provides
cutting edge evidence for the adverse effects of antibiotics, he tells us what we can do to avoid even more
catastrophic health problems in the future.
Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World
Jessica Snyder Sachs
2008
4.7 stars/37 reviews
6 copies in the library
Public sanitation and antibiotic drugs have brought about historic increases in the human life span; they
have also unintentionally produced new health crises by disrupting the intimate, age-old balance between
humans and the microorganisms that inhabit our bodies and our environment. As a result, antibiotic
resistance now ranks among the gravest medical problems of modern times. Good Germs, Bad Germs
tells the story of what went terribly wrong in our war on germs. It also offers a hopeful look into a future
in which antibiotics will be designed and used more wisely, and beyond that to a day when we may
replace antibacterial drugs and cleansers with bacterial ones.
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
David Quammen
2013
4.6 stars/297 reviews
7 copies in the library
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Scientific American Best Book of the Year, and a Finalist
for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Ebola, SARS, Hendra, AIDS, and countless other deadly
viruses all have one thing in common: the bugs that transmit these diseases all originate in wild animals
and pass to humans by a process called spillover. In this gripping account, David Quammen takes the
reader along on this astonishing quest to learn how, where from, and why these diseases emerge and asks
the terrifying question: What might the next big one be?
The End of Plagues: the Global Battle Against Infectious Disease
John Rhodes
2013
4.6 stars/5 reviews
6 copies in the library
At the turn of the twentieth century, smallpox claimed the lives of two million people per year. By 1979,
the disease had been eradicated and victory was declared across the globe. Yet the story of smallpox
remains the exception, as today a host of deadly contagions, from polio to AIDS, continue to threaten
human health around the world. Spanning three centuries, The End of Plagues weaves together the
discovery of vaccination, the birth and growth of immunology, and the fight to eradicate the world's most
feared diseases. From Edward Jenner's discovery of vaccination in 1796, to the early nineteenth-century
foundling voyages in which chains of orphans, vaccinated one by one, were sent to colonies around the
globe, to the development of polio vaccines and the stockpiling of smallpox as a biological weapon in the
Cold War, world-renown immunologist John Rhodes charts our fight against these plagues, and shows
how vaccinations gave humanity the upper hand. Today, aid groups including the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation and the World Health Organization have made the eradication of polio a priority, and Rhodes
takes us behind the scenes to witness how soon we may be celebrating the eradication of polio.
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Emerging Infections - Potential Plagues
The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age
Nathan Wolfe
2012
4.1 stars/56 reviews
2 copies in the library
In The Viral Storm, award-winning biologist Nathan Wolfe tells the story of how viruses and human
beings have evolved side by side through history; how deadly viruses like HIV, swine flu, and bird flu
almost wiped us out in the past; and why modern life has made our species vulnerable to the threat of a
global pandemic. He takes readers along on his groundbreaking and often dangerous research trips to
reveal the surprising origins of the most deadly diseases and to explain the role that viruses have played in
human evolution. In a world where each new outbreak seems worse than the one before, Wolfe points the
way forward, as new technologies are brought to bear to neutralize these viruses and even harness their
power for the good of humanity. His provocative vision of the future will change the way we think about
viruses, and perhaps remove a potential threat to humanity's survival.
The New Killer Disease: How the Alarming Evolution of Mutant Germs Threatens Us All
Elinor Levy
2003
5.0 stars/4 reviews
3 copies in the library
The strange new disease SARS erupted apparently out of nowhere and has spread at an astonishing rate.
Scary as SARS itself is, the disease is also a warning of many possible such outbreaks to come. Featuring
the disturbing story of SARS—where it came from, what it is, and how to protect yourself from it—as
well as those of many other recently evolved deadly scourges, the book is a shocking call to arms. All
around us—in our homes, workplaces, and public spaces—bacteria and viruses are evolving at a feverish
rate, and our best defenses against them are in danger of being overwhelmed. The threat posed by
emerging infectious diseases is as formidable as any challenge the human race has ever faced, and the
evolutionary scales may be tipping in favor of the microbes. In this book, a respected immunologist and a
veteran science author introduce the vital facts the public must know about the astonishing range of killer
microbes we are up against. From the SARS and West Nile viruses to mad cow and Ebola, thirty new
deadly diseases have arisen since the 1970s, and twenty old scourges, such as plague and cholera, are
reemerging. But the FDA only recently approved the first new type of antibiotic in thirty-four years, and
vaccines for many of the most lethal viruses are a long way from development. In addition, researchers
have only lately discovered that bacteria have been swapping resistance genes—genes that help them
evade the drugs meant to kill them—and are evolving new mechanisms to fight off even our best drugs at
a startling pace.
A Planet of Viruses
Carl Zimmer
2012
4.1 stars/73 reviews
4 copies in the library
Viruses are the smallest living things known to science, yet they hold the entire planet in their sway. We
are most familiar with the viruses that give us colds or the flu, but viruses also cause a vast range of other
diseases, including one disorder that makes people sprout branch-like growths as if they were trees.
Viruses have been a part of our lives for so long, in fact, that we are actually part virus: the human
genome contains more DNA from viruses than our own genes. Meanwhile, scientists are discovering
viruses everywhere they look: in the soil, in the ocean, even in caves miles underground. This fascinating
book explores the hidden world of viruses—a world that we all inhabit. Here Carl Zimmer, popular
science writer and author of Discover magazine’s award-winning blog The Loom, presents the latest
research on how viruses hold sway over our lives and our biosphere, how viruses helped give rise to the
first life-forms, how viruses are producing new diseases, how we can harness viruses for our own ends,
and how viruses will continue to control our fate for years to come. In this eye-opening tour of the
frontiers of biology, where scientists are expanding our understanding of life as we know it, we learn that
some treatments for the common cold do more harm than good; that the world’s oceans are home to an
astonishing number of viruses; and that the evolution of HIV is now in overdrive, spawning more mutated
strains than we care to imagine.
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Emerging Infections - Potential Plagues
Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health
Laurie Garrett
2001
4.2 stars/52 reviews
3 copies in the library
In this meticulously researched and ultimately explosive new book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author
of the New York Times bestseller The Coming Plague, Laurie Garrett takes on perhaps the most crucial
global issue of our time. She asks: is our collective health in a state of decline? If so, how dire is this
crisis and has the public health system itself contributed to it? Using riveting detail and finely-honed
storytelling, Garrett exposes the underbelly of the world's globalization to find out if it can still be
assumed that government can and will protect the people's health, or if that trust has been irrevocably
broken.
CLASSIC BOOKS (over 15 years old)
The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Disease
Laurie Garrett
1995
4.5 stars/125 reviews
3 copies in the library
Unpurified drinking water. Improper use of antibiotics. Local warfare. Massive refugee migration.
Changing social and environmental conditions around the world have fostered the spread of new and
potentially devastating viruses and diseases—HIV, Lassa, Ebola, and others. Laurie Garrett takes you on
a fifty-year journey through the world's battles with microbes and examines the worldwide conditions that
have culminated in recurrent outbreaks of newly discovered diseases, epidemics of diseases migrating to
new areas, and mutated old diseases that are no longer curable. She argues that it is not too late to take
action to prevent the further onslaught of viruses and microbes, and offers possible solutions for a
healthier future.
The Hot Zone
Richard Preston
1995
4.5 stars/1,036 reviews
12 copies in the library
The bestselling landmark account of the first emergence of the Ebola virus. A highly infectious,
deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
There is no cure. In a few days 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of
soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus. The Hot Zone tells this
dramatic story, giving a hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their
"crashes" into the human race. Shocking, frightening, and impossible to ignore, The Hot Zone proves that
truth really is scarier than fiction.
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