I just finished reading The Coming Plague for the second time, and was once again enthralled by the descriptions of disease hunters, and the progression of resistant microbes over time. Good stuff.
I’m interested in reading more on the topic but don’t really know where to start. Anyone have any suggestions?
Outbreak. they made a movie about it a few years ago. My AP Biology teacher in highschool required us all to read it. It is a very scary and graphic book.
It’s no plague, but a travelogue named “The Trembling Mountain” is a very interesting read about the ‘cannibal disease’ kuru and the people of Papua New Guinea.
Richard Preston’s ‘The Hot Zone’ is a classic, although sensationalized.
Uh… Shilts or something, “And The Band Played On.” A slightly dated, but still gripping timeline of the early history of AIDS and HIV.
I never read The Hot Zone, but I did read Preston’s other book, titled, I think, The Cobra Event, or something like that. Anyway, I thought it was horrible. The writing was very amateurish. IMHO, natch.
The White Death, about tuberculosis.
Plagues and Peoples, about how populations react to predation (by raiders) and diseases common to their areas.
Regards,
Shodan
Probably a bit dated, but Microbe Hunters is a classic.
It is probably out of print now, but I enjoyed Rats, Lice and History. I found it well written and entertaining (if a book on the subject can be called entertaining). I have seen it in some libraries and a few used bookstores.
TV
Anything by Berton Roueche. He was the medical writer for The New Yorker for many years. I first fell in love with his writing in the magazine – he famously wrote about Munchausen by proxy before it was well known. Since his work spans the 1940’s to the 1980’s, he also discusses diseases like leprosy and smallpox in a modern context.
I see that The Medical Detectives and some of his other collections of columns are still in print. Now I feel like ordering something – psittacosis, anthrax (the old-fashioned way), tetanus, tons of salmonella…fascinating stuff.
*And the Waters Turned to Blood by Rodney Barker.
Very interesting read and a bit more intense (for me) since it is entirely within the United States.
I second Microbe Hungers and de Kruif’s second book Hunger Fighters. The prose is a bit gushy, but the stories are still fascinating.
“Flu” about the 1918 “Spanish Influenza” outbreak (started in US) and “Betrayal of Trust” about the breakdown of public health infrastructure worldwide.