Customer Reviews

Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Guillemin's fascinating story of the research conducted in Russia to find the truth behind the 1979 anthrax outbreak in Sverdlovsk, now Yaketerinburg says much about life under the old Soviet regime. Official silence on key information compunded with official statements never really believed by those hearing it lead to all sorts of wild rumors, many repeated by the US government which probably had little firm evidence to go on. (Given that many major disasters under the Soviet regime such as plane crashes, subway cave-ins and train wrecks were never publicly announced, US analysts might well have thought they were being reasonable in their reports of "thousands" dead in a release of anthrax spores.) The research steps taken by the Harvard University team, including the interviews conducted by Guillemin and her Russian assistants are laid out. The author recounts her reactions and those she interviews, showing the impact the outbreak had on the residents downwind of the mysterious Compound 19. She points how certain features of the Soviet regime assisted her : the lack of mobility for residents kept most survivors and relatives of the victims in the same neighborhoods, which made locating them for interviews much easier, and the centralized nature of the Soviet government enabled public health officials to quickly mobilize a response, saving some lives. "Anthrax" contains a rich bibliography for those with further interest in the history and use of biological weapons. The author restrains her obvious outrage at the existence and use of these weapons, hoping that publicizing their existence and potential threat will encourage the rest of us to take steps to contain and eventually eliminate them. To her credit, she does point out how public scares can exaggerate the usefulness of bio-weapons, and become excuses for continued restriction on the freedoms of the public. Recommended for those in public health and epidemiology, those concerned with the threat of biological weapons, and historians of the Former Soviet Union.

I looked to this book for more details about the Sverdlovsk outbreak after reading Biohazard, the excellent expose by Ken Alibek published a year after this book. Comparisons of the two books are inherently unfair and at the same time unavoidable because Alibek, who spent two decades directing major parts of the Soviet Union's covert biological warfare programs, knows so much more than everyone involved with this investigation could have ever hoped to uncover. Bottom line: I strongly recommend "Biohazard" over this book. Alibek's chapter on Sverdlovsk has riveting first-hand accounts of the accident at the anthrax production facility. And he names names!

This book presents circumstantial evidence from people who were outside the biological warfare program: attending doctors, victims' families, etc. Like "Biohazard," it also refutes the official "contaminated meat" story.

I did get a bit of the additional detail I was looking for, and for that I give it two stars, but it meanders quite a bit with childish, off-topic editorial musings that belong in a travelogue rather than in a presentation of findings, and I found it dull. I have more criticisms of this book but see no use in presenting them: there are nearly 400 used copies for sale here as I type this. It's dead.

Jeanne Guillemin writes a first person account of an independent investigation of the 1979 Anthrax outbreak in Soviet Sverdlovsk. The style of writting is unique in that she intersperses throughout the book loosely related discussions of sociological and cultural literature. Anthrax comes to the conclusion that the outbreak was pulmonary anthrax emminating from Military Compound 19. The books one and only disappointment is the groups failure to investigate the military compound (they couldn't get on it)...leaving the reader with the body, the smoke, but no gun.

The author freely expresses her opinions throughout the book. She describes the personal losses from the anthrax fatalities. Her description of the casualty presentation is a must read...the mild onset followed by a sudden collapse after the anthrax eclipse. She points out several times the exagerations of risks and the BW terrorist threat.

The ending leaves one feeling uneasy with Russian officials now seeming to be less candid about the incident, and former ones pointing out the matter should be dropped due to the multi-lateral aspect of BW today.

We hear with increasing frequency about the use of biological weapons or the threat of their use yet, as laymen, we have no way to evaluate how much danger we may actually be in. And politicians and extremists use this ignorance to their advantage. This book is a landmark. It describes an extremely complex subject in a way that is accessible to any intelligent reader. It reads like a good mystery, full of plot, place, and the nuance of character. An extraordinary achievement.

Although I found this medical mystery fascinating, it was the devasting human suffering and agony that the surviors, relatives, friends, and neighbors endured that made this story touch me deeply. I highly recommend it to all.

Jeanne Guillemin's masterful account of the Sverdlovsk outbreak of anthrax in 1979 is a suspenseful medical mystery; a thoughtful analysis of the threats, real and imagined, of bioterrorism; and an intelligent tour of the sociological, political, and psychological ramifications of the event. A very appealing element of the book is the sheer power of the storytelling. We are drawn in by a personable, human, plucky narrator who, as a sociologist, a westerner, a woman, has to navigate the maze of Soviet bureaucracy to reach the human heart of the story. The portraits of those who died in the outbreak are highly detailed and poignant; the book is, in part, a testimony to the specific people who lost their lives as the result of a complex chain of events quite beyond them. I found the book compelling and moving -- a great read.

Professor Guillemin's work on the 1979 Sverdlovsk outbreak in the former Soviet Union is written in a very conversational tone, which makes the book a quick read.

This conversational quality however quickly leads to off-topic meanderings; for example, parallels are drawn from classical Russian literature to situations she experiences (at least a fourth of her footnotes are to quoted Russian literature), and she often cannot resist waxing personal philosophic on the conditions of life in the world today (not necessarily in Russia). While she disowns the expected clinical descriptions and warns she chose a first-person, emotional narrative in the introduction, some (particularly specialists) might find this type of writing annoying.

This first-person approach has the deliberate quality of putting a human face on this situation of clinical interest -- and it is this attitude that dominates the work. She recounts the 1979 Sverdlovsk outbreak in terms of human loss and the suffering the families endured as a result. Her primary purpose is therefore to give the victims a voice. Not a bad thing, but not what I expected based on the title.

The down side to this emotional narrative is that the author often becomes whiny, even to the point of naivety (particularly about the realities of Cold War politics, the Biological Weapons Convention Treaty [which both the US and the USSR, not just the USSR, violated at will] and the extent and nature of the American bio-chemical weapons production programs. Unconscious assigning of white and black hats is an unfortunate bias to the work).

This work therefore should have been subtitled "A Sociological Exploration of the Aftermath of the Sverdlovsk Outbreak" or somesuch.

Methodologically, the approach is also problematic. While the testimony of the people of Sverdlovsk is vital, some of the critically important survivors could not be located, while others could not recall (or chose to forget) the details of the incident, which makes their accounts sometimes contradictory and the study itself largely incomplete. Moreover most of the citizen's testimony is hearsay, rumourmongering, or just plain speculation, usually governed by Soviet Cold War propaganda and disinformation. Many of the governmental officials simply refused to comment.

Professor Guillemin is a Sociologist and not a Bacteriologist/Epidemiologist, and this really affects the format of the work. She often quotes other Sociologists/Political Scientists on theoretics of social situations in transitional Russia (ostensibly as backgrounders), but these rarely have any relevance to the Sverdlovsk incident; often one is left with the impression she'd rather talk about the contemporary Russian people (or her husband!) and not the outbreak at all.

Of note is Professor Guillemin's aloofness to the 'scholarship' and eyewitnesses to Soviet bioweapons production during the Cold War. Although she names a few key individuals, she seems to give their first hand testimony almost no attention. I recommend Ken Alibek's _Biohazard_ (which includes a chapter on the Sverdlovsk incident), which Guillemin seems to have ignored. The reader is left wondering why Guillemin's many interviews didn't include Alibek/Alibekov or even Pasechnik (like Alibek, director of a biological weapons production facility in Russia before his defection), both of whom now reside in the US. Neither is any attention paid to the publications of KGB activities now emerging from the former Soviet Union. IOW, Guillemin doesn't seem to have done her homework.

Guillemin's work is however valuable, but ultimately for epidemiological reasons and for her reporting of the findings of the research team to which she was attached. The research team's conclusions are epidemiologically incomplete as well (the KGB seized all records and squelched the officials that could have assisted in an epizootic examination), but nonetheless the work advances the understanding of the 1979 Sverdlovsk outbreak.
As she was told by several Russians, this mystery will never be solved.

Avoid the book if you expect to find more than a paragraph of clinical detail or bacteriological discussion, to which Guillemin seems squeamish. She is however to be commended for presenting all her findings, incomplete or no. Such is good science.

An exceptional work made possible by thorough investigation. If you have an interest in biological warfare or epidemiology this is a classic. The information fits so well with the information provided by insider Ken Alibek in his book, BIOHAZARD. The conclusions reached are not opinionated or slanted, but solid information based on evidence.

i read this and graysmith's book on the topic of the anthrax attacks. i found this book to be the better. reading it is like listening to someone describe a spider's web, with it's varying lines, thicknesses, angles, dimensions ... its not easy to fully explore a topic with different sites, characters, and the timelines. the author does more than an adequate job of accomplishing these tasks. with our finest investigative agencies never having publicly resolved this complex case, i felt disappointed when the end of the book came and we hadn't reached a conclusion, either... this is a quick read. given the difference between the current price new ($40.00) and used ($0.01), for the price - used - you can't go wrong.

Jeanne Guillemin attempts to unravel the complex mystery of the 1979 Siberian outbreak of anthrax. Was it really from tainted meat, as the Soviet officials would have the world believe? Was the cause due to burning of dead anthrax-infected animals or due an accidental or purposeful release of weaponized anthrax spores from the Soviet facility, Compound 19?

Guillemin approaches her study of the events and its root cause following all of the principles of sound science.

As a human being, however, her outrage over this incident continues to surface. As she recounts her investigation she interjects this outrage, often digressing from the story line to vent her indignation.

Unlike a possibly dry standard scientific thesis this story could have turned into, she includes many human elements in her writing. She describes the families of the victims, their losses, and sorrow. She also goes into great detail about what her team ate and drank, the meals they missed, and every possible incident interesting or otherwise about the trip to Siberia. She even includes a description of her inappropriate wearing of sandals for a Siberian spring. The author is writing for a general audience rather than for the scientific community and she or her publisher understands the need for the appealing human element. Sadly this takes the reader away from focusing on the many fascinating scientific and public health aspects of the study that almost become an aside to her story of the quest for information on the victims.

It is a worthwhile, though in parts wordy read. Read in conjunction with "Biohazard", the dark side of science is well represented.