Full Description
"As the human population explodes and globalization continues, diseases can spread from one country to another as fast as an airplane can fly. Whether a virus is unintentionally released via our modern transportation system, or deliberately by terrorists, even a small scale biological ""event"" could have a profound effect on our society. Yet our current public health system is completely unprepared to detect and respond quickly enough to avert a disease-related crisis.
Microbe does more than detail the threats that face us today. Containing riveting accounts of barely averted catastrophes (including outbreaks of West Nile virus, SARS, and hantavirus), the book examines the disjointed, ineffective system we all rely upon to keep us alive and healthy. More important, the book presents a solution to stop outbreaks and minimize the impact of an epidemic.
Illustrated with two hypothetical stories (an outbreak of bird flu in Southern California and a bioterrorism attack in Denver) Microbe looks at the potential effects of health disasters -- and offers practical steps to stop them in their tracks."
Contents
"Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Birds That Fell From the Sky -- West Nile Virus
Chapter 2: A Corona of Death -- SARS
Chapter 3: The Arroyo Muerte -- Sin Nombre Hantavirus
Chapter 4: Outbreaks, Reservoirs and Dead End Hosts
Chapter 5: Shards of Glass in the Brain -- Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (Mad Cow)
Chapter 6: Out of the Shadows -- Legionella Pneumophila (Legionnaire's Disease)
Chapter 7: An Ill Wind -- Smallpox
Chapter 8: Natural Born Killers --Why Some Germs Stay Bad
Chapter 9: Something in the Water - Cholera, Cryptosporidiosis
Chapter 10: When Hours Count - but Days Don't Matter - Anthrax
Chapter 11 Pronouncing the Patient CURED
Chapter 12: Project BIOWATCH - Plague Vials Vanish in Texas
Chapter 13: A New Weapon in the Fight
Chapter 14: Gold Nuggets and Influenza Vaccines -- DNA-based vaccines
Chapter 15: Three Ounces of Prevention -- Scenarios involving Avian Bird Flu, Bioterrorism using Smallpox
Chapter 16: Into a Crystal Ball, Darkly...
Appendix A: Glossary
Appendix B: Letter to Lev Sandhakchiev"
