Virus X: Tracking the New Killer Plagues

My reading during the coronavirus pandemic has tended more towards the escapist than the relevant, but this book from 1997, which had been languishing on my TBR shelves for years, kept sitting there giving me looks, like "Don't you think now is the right time to finally read me?" Well, far be it from me to deny a book when it starts doing that. I mean, that way lies madness, right?

And, honestly, somewhat to my surprise I did find that reading about the diseases people were concerned about in the 90s helped to take my mind off the one we're concerned about today. Well, at least until I got to the final chapters, about the threat of future pandemics and our global unpreparedness for them. That inevitably made the anxiety spike a show more little.

Several diseases are covered in a fair amount of depth, including hantavirus, Ebola, and AIDS. The section on AIDS, of course, is particularly dated, but it was actually kind of interesting to see a snapshot of where AIDS research was at the time. And I especially appreciated the detailed discussion of hantavirus, since I knew surprisingly little about that disease or its emergence, despite having lived in New Mexico at the time of the outbreak here in the early 90s.

Later in the book, the author goes into some of his own ideas about emerging viruses. One is the very reasonable-sounding hypothesis that new diseases, since they tend to arise out of contact between humans and animals already carrying a version of the virus, are spurred on by humans encroaching onto or destroying animal habitats and generally wreaking ecological disruption, including via climate change.

His other idea is that viruses which have co-evolved with their hosts (often to the point where they provoke few symptoms in that species) can be viewed as having a genuinely symbiotic relationship with those hosts, and that their ability to mutate to infect other, unprepared species in times of environmental disruption works to their hosts' advantage by attacking competitors or predators. I honestly can't decide whether that way of looking at it is deeply insightful or mildly nuts, but either way it's interesting. show less

Virus X does exactly what the subtitle claims, tracking the new killer plagues (out of the present and into the future.) It covers the usual suspects; Ebola, Hantavirus, AIDS, etc, and examines how these deadly diseases have recently emerged and what the future holds in a world where so many deadly microbes seem to crop up so often. The author admits in the introduction that the topic has been covered already by the likes of Laurie Garrett with The Coming Plague, and others, but he stubbornly wrote his book anyway.

Really, if you've read The Coming Plague two-thirds of Virus X will feel like a rehashing. In fact, there were some instances where it seemed like the author copied directly from Laurie Garrett's book. The rest is a smattering show more of new material which, although interesting, isn't worth trudging through the rest of the book. While the book did occasionally capture my attention, it seemed a lot of times I was disinterested. There just wasn't enough new information to make the book worthwhile

Ignoring this, Virus X really is a good book. It just isn't anything new. It's one of those books where, if someone told me they were about to read it, I'd nod and tell them it isn't bad. But if someone asked me for a recommendation for a book on the topic, Virus X wouldn't make the list. It's decent, it's readable, but ultimately it's just average. show less

Fascinating. Viruses are scary. I mean, really scary. Of things I try not to wish upon people, Ebola is one of those things.

Anyway, this book is really interesting. It goes and describes the rise of a few epidemic viruses. The Sin Nombre Hantavirus from 1993 or so, the Ebola outbreak from 1976, and some others. It goes through some of the cases like a mystery novel. Describing the behind the scenes processes involved in identifying these diseases and how they were transmitted.

I hope to find more books like this.