Microbe: Are We Ready for the Next Plague? [Hardcover]

Alan Zelicoff MD (Author), Michael Bellomo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 2005

"As the human population explodes and globalization continues, diseases can spread from one country to another as fast as an airplane can fly. Whether a virus is unintentionally released via our modern transportation system, or deliberately by terrorists, even a small scale biological "event" could have a profound effect on our society. Yet our current public health system is completely unprepared to detect and respond quickly enough to avert a disease-related crisis. Microbe does more than detail the threats that face us today. Containing riveting accounts of barely averted catastrophes (including outbreaks of West Nile virus, SARS, and hantavirus), the book examines the disjointed, ineffective system we all rely upon to keep us alive and healthy. More important, the book presents a solution to stop outbreaks and minimize the impact of an epidemic. Illustrated with two hypothetical stories (an outbreak of bird flu in Southern California and a bioterrorism attack in Denver) Microbe looks at the potential effects of health disasters -- and offers practical steps to stop them in their tracks."

Editorial Reviews

Review

"BioSecurity Newsletter: ""This thought provoking book is a must read for anyone with concerns about or responsibility for early detection and containment of either emerging infectious diseases or the management of an epidemic caused by bioterrorism. In this delightfully pithy volume, the authors manage to interweave the recounting of past public health system failures with some good introductory science and some important insights into the ‘clinical thought process’....The clarity with which the authors discuss the strengths and weakness of the nation's current disease detection efforts and their shortfalls is refreshing and raises important policy issues.""

www.electricreview.net: ""as important as it is gutsy -- discussing the fallibility of our health-defense structure in both enlightened and human terms.""

Emerging Infectious Diseases (Center for Disease Control and Prevention e-newsletter): “…a comprehensive, yet succinct, account of the threat to public health posed by microbial pathogens. What distinguishes this book from the surfeit of recent books hyping the threat of bioterrorism are its balanced perspective and elucidation of naturally emerging disease threats, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or West Nile virus, as exotic entities requiring a rapid and effective response; Mother Nature is quite the bioterrorist herself...This book is the best of its genre and is recommended for anyone interested in understanding and managing the risks associated with emerging microbial threats.""

Albuquerque Sunday Journal: ""...the book is certainly valuable in making us aware of the problems in recognizing and reacting quickly to disease outbreaks, and to get us all thinking about possible solutions.""

The News Herald (Michigan): ""they’ve [the authors] written an intelligent, fast-moving and provocative book that is good reading for anyone who is not afraid to see the public health challenges we all face.""

The Futurist: ""Microbe will empower readers with that most essential of defenses—knowledge.""

Secrets of Special Ops Leadership by William A. Cohen, Ph.D., XXXXX (ISBN 0-8144-0840-0)

Chief Engineer: ""…it was as much fun to read as it was informative….A wonderfully written and extremely insightful book, every Chief and every small business owner or manager will come away with ideas on how they can win in any arena against any force they face.""

The Baltimore Sun: ""The authors do an excellent job of pointing out the failings of a ‘highly balkanized’ public health surveillance system in the United States….a great primer on the debate about whether the U.S. is ready for a pandemic.""

Science Books & Film: ""[A] timely and informative book...authoritatively written and the information conveyed is reliable.""

Journal of Chemical Education: ""If you want to read a comforting story of the benefits of modern science and medicine, this book isn’t for you. If you want a serious overview of the broad dangers we face from natural and man-made pathogenic organisms, you’ll get your money’s worth from this book. You’ll also find a sobering, real-life evaluation of the current status of the U.S. public health system."""

“… covers ground with clarity… enjoyable to read… an excellent primer for anyone seeking to understand the threat of microbial outbreaks.”

-Care Management Journals

“[Microbe] covers a great deal of ground with a great deal of clarity on a timely topic….it is enjoyable to read, due in part to the sense of suspense and excitement of responding to dramatic outbreaks of disease that is conveyed to the reader….Microbe would serve as an excellent primer for anyone seeking to understand the threat of microbial outbreaks, both natural and man-made, and the range of responses being employed to defend against them.”

-Care Management Journals

Review

"“This thought provoking book is a must read for anyone with concerns about or responsibility for early detection and containment of either emerging infectious diseases or the management of an epidemic caused by bioterrorism.

In this delightfully pithy volume, the authors manage to interweave the recounting of past public health system failures with some good introductory science and some important insights into the ""clinical thought process"". They conclude with straightforward recommendations for future actions.

The authors do a nice job explaining the nuances of prions and DNA vaccine and make a compelling case for strengthening the relationships between the public health, human and animal medical communities. The authors provide brief insights into several recent failures of the public health to detect and contain emerging infectious diseases before they became integrated into the nation's eco-systems. In recounting outbreaks of West Nile virus, cryptosporidium and bovine spongiform encephalopathy they raise a series of ""what if"" questions that should stimulate the reader to further readings.

The story of the Aralesk smallpox outbreak is in itself worth the price of the read. That relatively unknown smallpox outbreak caused by Soviet live agent testing, for once and for all, lays to rest some of the myths about the Soviets work to weaponize smallpox.

The book contains two illustrative bioterrorist scenarios, each of which is plausible and frighteningly realistic, and which by themselves make a compelling case for the nation's public health community to rapidly move to adopt a system of syndrome based disease surveillance.

It is those recurring discussions about the utility of syndrome-based surveillance that ultimately embody the book's central message. The clarity with which the authors discuss the strengths and weakness of the nation's current disease detection efforts and their shortfalls is refreshing and raises important policy issues. This book clearly illustrates the need for the nation to implement an emerging infectious diseases warning system that is syndrome-based rather than the one based on disease reporting. Hopefully, the public policy community as well as public health and clinical communities will read this book and act on its recommendations.""x

-- William D. Stanhope, Associate Director, Special Projects, Institute for Biosecurity, School of Public Health, Saint Louis University"

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 17 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM; 1 edition (June 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814408656
• ISBN-13: 978-0814408650
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #495,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A realistic and chilling warning, July 28, 2005

By 

Joshua Sher (Woodland Hills, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microbe: Are We Ready for the Next Plague? (Hardcover)

Microbe is a fascenating book that discusses the ways a disasterous disease outbreak could occur both as a result of human actions (such as terrorism) as well as from the many natural ways that diseases (often new diseases) end up infecting humans (as well as the disasterous effects of a public panic that could occur from real or imagined bio-terror attacks). The emphasis in the book is on the value of early detection that "something strange is going on", and on the important role doctors, nurses, and vets all play in disease monitoring (many diseases start as animal diseases before infecting humans). Sadly, the current public health situation results in very poor early detection of potentially serious diseases, and poor communication between all the different people involved in public health - problems that are easily rectified in the internet age.

The authors provide a couple of realistic scenarios that could occur, and discuss what would happen under the present public health monitoring situation, and how things could be radically different with simple improvements in disease monitoring. The authors also provide a lot of interesting information on the different diseases, the wide variety of treatment tactics (often there is no treatment - you just have to prevent it from spreading), how vaccines are made, and a discription of some of the serious outbreaks that have occured over the last 30 or so years.

This book is a highly recomended wake up call to get america to improve its public health infrastructure.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unexpectedly good - if frightening - read!, June 3, 2005

By 

Dave Whitney "Dave" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microbe: Are We Ready for the Next Plague? (Hardcover)

Microbe gives you a chilling journey which explores *multiple* stories; SARS, Hantavirus, West Nile...The chapter on the Soviet bioweapons program breeding even more lethal kinds of smallpox is worth the price of the book alone.

This was'nt a dry science book but something with a strong story that propels the reader through each chapter. If you like The Hot Zone you'll like this as it's a surprisingly easy read.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review by PB Jahrling on CDC website..., October 27, 2005

By 

NMG "Doc" (CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microbe: Are We Ready for the Next Plague? (Hardcover)

You may be interested to read a review of this book by Peter B. Jahrling (you'll recognize the name if you read The Hot Zone). You'll find his review on the CDC website, here:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol11no11/05-1084.htm

For those who are not familiar with PB Jahrling, here's a press release summarizing his accomplishments:

http://www.usamriid.army.mil/press%20releases/jahrling_press_release.pdf