Contagion Chaser

Picking up where his previous book, Rescues from the Sky, left off, Contagion Chaser details Dr. Lee F. Walters’ transition from saving lives at sea as part of an air medical rescue team with the US Coast Guard to becoming an infectious disease “detective.” Starting with a one-year medical residency at the University of Wisconsin, he moved on to a two-year fellowship in infectious disease at the University of Vermont before beginning private practice in Arizona, which lasted over two decades. Although the infectious disease practice in which Walters engaged was a far cry from the highly dramatic and potentially life threatening rescues described in the first book, this memoir offers a different type of adrenaline rush as he seeks to discover the causes of various mystery diseases and find a treatment before it’s too late. With his patients’ lives often hanging in the balance, it’s an emotional journey that frequently leaves Walters feeling discouraged and depressed as his patients die due to lack of available treatments, especially when the HIV/AIDS pandemic hits in 1981. Supporting him throughout his investigations is the love of his life, Cara. Their relationship provides a heartfelt and romantic counterpoint to the heavy emotional burden of Lee’s work.