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Outbreaks and epidemics : battling infection from measles to coronavirus / Meera Senthilingam.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Hot science (London, England)Publisher: London, England : Icon Books, 2020Description: xv, 176 pages ; 20 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781785785634
  • 178578563X
Subject(s): Summary: In recent years, outbreaks of Ebola and Zika have provided vivid examples of how difficult it is to contain an infection once it strikes, and the panic that a rapidly spreading epidemic can ignite. But while we chase the diseases we are already aware of, new ones are constantly emerging, like the coronavirus that spread across the world in 2020. At the same time, antimicrobial resistance is harnessing infections that we once knew how to control, enabling them to thrive once more.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Non-Fiction Davis (Central) Library Non-Fiction Non-Fiction 614.4 SEN Available T00833992
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

'A book that couldn't be more timely, providing an accessible introduction to epidemiology.' Kirkus

A compelling and disquieting journey through the history and science of epidemics.

For centuries mankind has waged war against the infections that, left untreated, would have the power to wipe out communities, or even entire populations. Yet for all our advanced scientific knowledge, only one human disease - smallpox - has ever been eradicated globally.

In recent years, outbreaks of Ebola and Zika have provided vivid examples of how difficult it is to contain an infection once it strikes, and the panic that a rapidly spreading epidemic can ignite.

But while we chase the diseases we are already aware of, new ones are constantly emerging, like the coronavirus that spread across the world in 2020. At the same time, antimicrobial resistance is harnessing infections that we once knew how to control, enabling them to thrive once more.

Meera Senthilingam presents a timely look at humanity's ongoing battle against infection, examining the successes and failures of the past, along with how we are confronting the challenges of today, and our chances of eradicating disease in the future.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

In recent years, outbreaks of Ebola and Zika have provided vivid examples of how difficult it is to contain an infection once it strikes, and the panic that a rapidly spreading epidemic can ignite. But while we chase the diseases we are already aware of, new ones are constantly emerging, like the coronavirus that spread across the world in 2020. At the same time, antimicrobial resistance is harnessing infections that we once knew how to control, enabling them to thrive once more.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Introduction: Room 911 (p. xi)
  • 1 Twenty-first-century infections (p. 1)
  • 2 Disease and politics (p. 37)
  • 3 Long live disease (p. 57)
  • 4 New and unknown (p. 77)
  • 5 Mosquito domination (p. 91)
  • 6 Time for a comeback (p. 107)
  • 7 When animals attack (p. 121)
  • 8 'I'm not going anywhere' (p. 141)
  • Epilogue (p. 161)
  • Acknowledgements (p. 165)
  • Further reading (p. 167)
  • Index (p. 169)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Health journalist Senthilingam debuts with a straightforward, helpful primer on understanding infectious disease spread and control. Beginning with terminology basics, she discusses how outbreak specialists decide to target a disease for control, elimination (as a threat), or eradication (erasing its presence in the population altogether). Senthilingam focuses on strategies for controlling spread and for quickly developing vaccines, and addresses at length the human factors that hamper these measures, including the overuse of antibiotics, which breeds antimicrobial resistance; the tendency of some patients not to complete protocols when they start to feel better; and the fear of vaccines, which in the U.S. and Europe has led to the reemergence of measles and in Pakistan and Afghanistan has interfered with the eradication of polio. Though brief references to Covid-19 appear throughout, Senthilingam concentrates on the disease's predecessors. She covers ancient diseases still persistent in the undeveloped world, including leprosy, tuberculosis, and bubonic and pneumonic plague, and discusses zoonotic, or animal-spread, disease--insect-spread dengue, Zika, and Lyme; Ebola, thought to have been introduced to a wider population by an unknown infected animal; and influenza, transmitted by both birds and pigs. A lay audience currently mired in concern about Covid-19 but potentially uninformed about epidemics in general should find Senthilingam's information-rich work both enlightening and accessible. (Apr.)

Kirkus Book Review

For those panicked or puzzled by the current pandemic, a handy look at the evolution of infectious diseases and their cures. Coronaviruses have been with us for a very long time, but the one that first captured the world's attention emerged only two decades ago, when Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome spread out of Hong Kong to 32 countries, eventually killing some 810 people over its five-month run. That seems a trifle against what global health journalis Senthilingam calls "a viral relative that would wreak greater havoc across the planet": the current outbreak of COVID-19. Although the government of China has not been entirely transparent about the outbreak, it appears at this writing that SARS prepared health workers to quarantine and isolate whole cities to keep the disease from spreading, and the number of new cases there has begun to decline. Outside China, of course, COVID-19 has become a pandemic, "the word that invokes fear in almost everyone," since pandemics are new diseases that require novel responses. It is no comfort to know that COVID-19 is but one of a roster of "emerging diseases" monitored lest they, too, become pandemics, including Ebola and Marburg viral diseases, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and even a "Disease X"--"meaning a completely new, previously unseen infectious disease, such as COVID--19 at the time of its emergence." Though some have likened COVID-19 to the flu, there are few commonalities other than the fact that some populations--e.g., the immune-suppressed or the elderly--are more susceptible to being killed by both than other populations, as was witnessed in 2017-2018 with a flu that killed 61,000 people in the U.S. alone, leading Senthilingam to note that "it's fair to say the harm caused by influenza is far greater than people realize." A book that couldn't be more timely, providing an accessible introduction to epidemiology. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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