Book Description
Spores, Plagues and History follows the trail of anthrax from prebibical times to the present. A highly readable, authoritative perspective of the role infectious agents have played in world history.
Author : Chris Holmes
Publisher : Chris Holmes
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 40,2 MB
Release : 2003
Category : History
ISBN : 9781930754454
Spores, Plagues and History follows the trail of anthrax from prebibical times to the present. A highly readable, authoritative perspective of the role infectious agents have played in world history.
Author : Dr. Alfred Jay Bollet, MD
Publisher : Demos Medical Publishing
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 17,69 MB
Release : 2004-06-01
Category : Medical
ISBN : 1934559385
Since publication of the initial version of Plagues & Poxes in 1987, which had the optimistic subtitle "The Rise and Fall of Epidemic Disease," the rise of new diseases such as AIDS and the deliberate modification and weaponization of diseases such as anthrax have changed the way we perceive infectious disease. With major modifications to deal with this new reality, the acclaimed author of Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs has updated and revised this series of essays about changing disease patterns in history and some of the key events and people involved in them. It deals with the history of major outbreaks of disease - both infectious diseases such as plague and smallpox and noninfectious diseases - and shows how they are in many cases caused inadvertently by human actions, including warfare, commercial travel, social adaptations, and dietary modifications. To these must now be added discussion of the intentional spreading of disease by acts of bioterrorism, and the history and knowledge of those diseases that are thought to be potential candidates for intentional spread by bioterrorists. Among the many topics discussed are: How the spread of smallpox and measles among previously unexposed populations in the Americas, the introduction of malaria and yellow fever from Africa via the importation of slaves into the Western hemisphere, and the importation of syphilis to Europe all are related to the modern interchange of diseases such as AIDS. How the ever-larger populations in the cities of Europe and North America gave rise to "crowd diseases" such as polio by permitting the existence of sufficient numbers of non-immune people in sufficient numbers to keep the diseases from dying out. How the domestication of animals allowed diseases of animals to affect humans, or perhaps become genetically modified to become epidemic human diseases. Why the concept of deficiency diseases was not understood before the early twentieth century; disease, after all, was the presence of something abnormal, how could it be due to the absence of something? In fact, the first epidemic disease in human history probably was iron deficiency anemia. How changes in the availability and nature of specific foods have affected the size of population groups and their health throughout history. The introduction of potatoes to Ireland and corn to Europe, and the relationship between the modern technique of rice milling and beriberi, all illustrate the fragile nutritional state that results when any single vegetable crop is the main source of food. Why biological warfare is not a new phenomenon. There have been attempts to intentionally cause epidemic disease almost since the dawn of recorded history, including the contamination of wells and other water sources of armies and civilian populations; of course, the spread of smallpox to Native Americans during the French and Indian War is known to every schoolchild. With our increased technology, it is not surprising that we now have to deal with problems such as weaponized spores of anthrax.
Author : Christopher Wills
Publisher : London : Flamingo
Page : 324 pages
File Size : 28,37 MB
Release : 1997-01
Category : Communicable diseases
ISBN : 9780006548690
Author :
Publisher : Knopf Books for Young Readers
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 50,61 MB
Release : 2005
Category : Black Death
ISBN : 9780375829864
Explores how major medical events and plagues impacted society and forever changed the course of history, including a review of the black plague and its effects on the feudal system and yellow fever and its impact on the slave trade.
Author : Arno Karlen
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 27,61 MB
Release : 1997
Category :
ISBN :
Author : Christopher Wills
Publisher :
Page : 324 pages
File Size : 44,72 MB
Release : 1996
Category : Communicable diseases
ISBN : 9780002556118
Using vivid descriptions and a wealth of personal stories and anecdotes, this work tells of the origins, biology and destiny of such scourges of the human race as bubonic plague, malaria, typhoid, cholera, syphilis and AIDS.
Author : Norman F. Cantor
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 11,78 MB
Release : 2015-03-17
Category : History
ISBN : 1476797749
The Black Death was the fourteenth century's equivalent of a nuclear war. It wiped out one-third of Europe's population, taking millions of lives. The author draws together the most recent scientific discoveries and historical research to pierce the mist and tell the story of the Black Death as a gripping, intimate narrative.
Author : George Fleming
Publisher : Nabu Press
Page : 586 pages
File Size : 14,45 MB
Release : 2013-11
Category :
ISBN : 9781293303276
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
Author : William Hardy McNeil
Publisher :
Page : 365 pages
File Size : 35,4 MB
Release : 1989
Category :
ISBN :
Author : Michael B. A. Oldstone
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 513 pages
File Size : 28,51 MB
Release : 2020
Category : Medical
ISBN : 0190056789
"Here, my previous edition of Viruses, Plagues, & History is updated to reflect both progress and disappointment since that publication. This edition describes newcomers to the range of human infections, specifically, plagues that play important roles in this 21st century. The first is Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), an infection related to Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). SARS was the first new-found plague of this century. Zika virus, which is similar to yellow fever virus in being transmitted by mosquitos, is another of the recent scourges. Zika appearing for the first time in the Americas is associated with birth defects and a paralytic condition in adults. Lastly, illness due to hepatitis viruses were observed prominently during the second World War initially associated with blood transfusions and vaccine inoculations. Since then, hepatitis virus infections have afflicted millions of individuals, in some leading to an acute fulminating liver disease or more often to a life-long persistent infection. A subset of those infected has developed liver cancer. However, in a triumph of medical treatments for infectious diseases, pharmaceuticals have been developed whose use virtually eliminates such maladies. For example, Hepatitis C virus infection has been eliminated from almost all (>97%) of its victims. This incredible result was the by-product of basic research in virology as well as cell and molecular biology during which intelligent drugs were designed to block events in the hepatitis virus life-cycle"--