Posted on 03/10/2006 4:09:24 PM PST by woofie
Microbe is a factual book that goes a long way toward informing the reader about a broad cross section of infectious diseases and biohazards that we must face in the coming years. All scientists should be aware of the inner workings of bacterial and viral epidemics, and this book provides a solid base of information on risks as varied as smallpox, influenza, anthrax, and cryptosporidiosis. The text is mostly structured as one chapter per disease, providing both historical and scientific details quite successfully. Microbe is also a book designed to disrupt our sense of complacency about the public health system in the U.S. It challenges our assumption that the public health system works well, even in the face of widespread disease and even epidemics. The reader encounters example after example of past system failures under even modest stress. A long litany of probable future outbreaks and bioterror events is presented, in a factual and straightforward manner. Having made the case for the need for systematic improvements, the authors propose some practical ways to make those improvements.
Much of the book is dedicated to demonstrating the science and epidemiology of past outbreaks, including chapters on the West Nile virus, SARS, Hantavirus, Creutzfeld–Jakob disease, cholera, cryptosporidiosis, and others. In addition to the science and history of outbreaks for each organism, the successes and failures of the public health early warning systems are described. In most cases, new outbreaks are only slowly recognized, often by single outspoken individuals fighting a disbelieving system. In some cases governmental efforts to avoid panic sidetrack efforts to fight and contain outbreaks, as was the case with China during the recent SARS outbreak. These outbreak reports highlight the serious risks of outbreaks and the still present weaknesses in early detection warning systems.
The reality of bioterrorism attacks with biological agents is also well explored. The use of toxins, pathogenic bacteria, and pathogenic viruses are all described, as is the limited progress in building early detection systems since September 11, 2001. Having read through this material, the reader can only believe such events are probable in the near term future and that our preparedness is still weak.
Microbe is authored by a risk analysis expert and a physician. Both flavors are present in the book, nicely melded into a flowing story. The emphasis is on the science of the biohazards we face in the coming years and the role and realities of the public health system as the prime responder to bioterrorism or natural epidemics.
One limitation of the book is its broad focus. With a different infectious agent in each chapter, the stories can only include a limited amount of detail on each one. To get a deeper appreciation of the impact of a broad epidemic in modern society, this reviewer would encourage readers to also explore a single event in detail. A number of very nice book-length explorations of the 1918 influenza epidemic that killed 20–40 million people have been published recently, and similar works exist for yellow fever, polio, plague, and smallpox outbreaks.
If you want to read a comforting story of the benefits of modern science and medicine, this book isn’t for you. If you want a serious overview of the broad dangers we face from natural and man-made pathogenic organisms, you’ll get your money’s worth from this book. You’ll also find a sobering, real-life evaluation of the current status of the U.S. public health system.
Were we ready for the first plague?
Dr. Alan P. Zelicoff, author, MICROBE: Are We Ready for the Next Plague?
Alan P. Zelicoff, M.D. is a physician, physicist, and Senior Scientific Consultant for Ares Corporation, a risk-analysis engineering firm with offices across the U.S. Formerly, Dr. Zelicoff was senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, an engineering and science laboratory operated by Sandia Corporations for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Dr. Zelicofff is the inventor of the Syndrome Reporting Information System, a platform-independent, networked disease monitoring tool for public health officials, physicians, veterinarians, laboratory and EMS professionals, emergency management coordinators, and decision-makers. He has written for numerous publications, including The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.
I was
Anyone know of an approriate ping list for this?
Blam, I recall that you've posted several bird flu articles and thought you might be interested.
Sorry. I don't have a/the ping list.
Read This:
Historical Review: Megadrought And Megadeath In 16th Century Mexico (Hemorragic Fever)
"The epidemic of cocoliztli from1545 to 1548 killed an estimated 5 million to 15 million people, or up to 80% of the native population of Mexico (Figure 1). In absolute and relative terms the 1545 epidemic was one of the worst demographic catastrophes in human history, approaching even the Black Death of bubonic plague, which killed approximately 25 million in western Europe from 1347 to 1351 or about 50% of the regional population. "
I just thought you'd be interested.
I never heard of that other plague.
Best way to be prepared is to be self sufficient; make sure you can get by withour human contact for some time. I'm working on that. I love to garden and it doesn't matter to me if it's flowers or food; so I'll take the food. I've got a few berry bushes ordered and am working on a small, for now, veggie garden. I'm trying different plants to see what grows the best.
I think that city folk are going to have the worst time of it.
The Threat matrix thread people would likely be interested, you could post a link to it there:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1593657/posts
They'd be interested in the bio-terrorism aspect.
ping
for your information
bump
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