The Coming Plague (1994)

Discusses the onset of emerging diseases in teh global stage today. ( )

This is one of those books that is daunting and fascinating all at once. THE COMING PLAGUE contains over 600 pages of fine-print material about the major diseases that emerged in the 20th century, how they were investigated, and what worked to resolve the issue (if anything). The level of detail Garrett employed is quite exhausting; the notes section is about 100 pages, and the books totals 750-pages in all. I read this for novel research, and it took me a month to do it as I read other books at the same time. Yes, I skimmed, but it was a slow skim as I jotted notes on sticky tabs throughout.

The sections that intrigued me the most were machupo (which I hadn't even heard of before), ebola, and hantavirus. The book also contains several hundreds pages on HIV/AIDS and the "Thirdworldization" issues of the 1980s and early '90s. It was interesting to see this book, published in 1994, cite how dangerous it was for cows and other farm animals to be given excessive hormones and antibiotic treatments, and lo and behold in the past few years those issues are finally being addressed. The slowness of medical responses is what really appalled me. In many ways, the United States was more ready in the 1950s due to Cold War vigilance and the use of "cowboy" epidemiologists who were willing to muck through the jungles in Africa or Central America to search for scat. As THE COMING PLAGUE points out in the end, the World Health Organization didn't recognize the threat of AIDS until it had already spread to four continents. That's just plain scary.

It all made for a fascinating read, but I am quite thankful to be done with this book! ( )

A compelling, phenomenal book that explains the history and evolution of infectious diseases and mankind's attempts to adapt and defeat them. Garrett explains disease mechanisms in a frightening yet lucid way, in layman's language. The ordinary reader - one with no background in epidemiology - walks away understanding how viruses and bacteria spread, how the immune system fights them, how various drug therapies work, and how viruses and bacteria evolve to beat both immune systems and drug treatments. Garrett explains the urgency of a truly world-wide public health policy, and backs every single statement up with the clearest distillation of facts and research.

It will terrify you, if you have a lick of sense ... and it will make you want to start taking action, start writing your politicians, start asking your doctor questions. You may not fear contracting Mad Cow disease from your food, but you certainly will want to ensure all your vaccinations are up-to-date.

I really enjoyed this book. It was ridiculously huge for a nonfiction, but I enjoyed (almost) every page of it. The book covers 3 aspects of disease: The recent history of deadly disease outbreaks such as Lassa Fever, Marburg/Ebola, and Yellow Fever; Current (as of 1994) outbreaks such as AIDS, Toxic Shock Syndrome, and Hantavirus; and the potential future of infectious diseases. The future is definitely the scariest. You would think that as technology advances the microbes would become less and less of a problem, but the book argues that with every technological advance we make, we wind up unleashing the microbes on ourselves. Blood transfusions, megacities, water treatment...heck, even antibiotics have actually strengthened the microbes as they become resistant to the drugs, rendering once benign illnesses untreatable. Laurie Garrett has definitely opened my eyes to the power of the microbes. Suddenly I don't feel so confident in humanities dominance of the planet.

Don't think that the book is all paranoid doomsaying though. While the predictions for the future of disease control can be disheartening, her chapters on humanities scientific advances can instill at least some confidence. The chapters on things like genetic engineering and WHO's attempts at world-wide microbe surveillance help make you think that not all is lost!

Overall, I found this book to be both compelling and very informative. The size might put some people off, but I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the topic. ( )

A great book. The chapters on the emergance of AIDS
is the best part. ( )