Patient Zero
A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases
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- $28.99
Publisher Description
From the masters of storytelling-meets-science and co-authors of Quackery, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks—how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us.
Written in the authors’ lively and accessible style, chapters include page-turning medical stories about a particular disease or virus—smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio, HIV—that combine “Patient Zero” narratives, or the human stories behind outbreaks, with historical examinations of missteps, milestones, scientific theories, and more.
Learn the tragic stories of Patient Zeros throughout history, such as Mabalo Lokela, who contracted Ebola while on vacation in 1976, and the Lewis Baby on London’s Broad Street, the first to catch cholera in an 1854 outbreak that led to a major medical breakthrough. Interspersed are origin stories of a different sort—how a rye fungus in 1951 turned a small village in France into a phantasmagoric scene reminiscent of Burning Man. Plus the uneasy history of human autopsy, how the HIV virus has been with us for at least a century, and more.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Physician Kang and historian Pedersen team up again (after Quackery) with a thorough and morbidly funny study of some of the world's deadliest diseases. Those covered include rabies (so ancient it's mentioned in the ancient Middle Eastern Laws of Eshnunna), HIV (which likely circulated in the U.S. for nearly a decade before its recognition), and ergotism (a fungus found in bread made with contaminated flour, which made the sick smell like dead mice). Despite the wide-ranging varieties of illnesses, the authors show, some constants appear throughout history, such as the politicization of pandemics and "our voracious human appetites" that push people to disrupt animal habitats (60% of the diseases that affect humans are caused by germs that spread between animals and people). Kang and Pedersen's conversational tone keeps things moving, and they're magnificent at reminding readers that, although pathogens will probably continue to "consume ravenously, kill what's in their way, and adapt," medicine has come a long way from recommending blood baths, drinking urine, and consuming mercury as treatments. Readers will be swept away by this energetic and enlightening survey.
