Customer Reviews

Microbes Versus Mankind: The Coming Plague (Headline Series)

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In 1980 I worked in the emergency department of the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, Manhattan, often as the triage nurse. With my youthful, callous, professional, and caffienne-fired style I greeted the neigborhood's denizens each evening as they staggered or were carried in by the EMTs. But it was not until I read Laurie Garrett's riveting account of emerging infectious diseases did I recall the one or two times when a different sort of visitor arrived at our door. They came by private ambulance, with a strange and worried entourage', and the patient on the stretcher always looked moridund in a way I'd never seen before. When I politely asked this strange group if they needed help or direction, they quickly, politely refused, using their bodies to screen my approach to the patient. No, they explained, they were awaiting someone from the Infectious Disease service to accompany them upstairs. And so I'd back off and return to my post, ready to latch on to the next guest on the evening's never-ending list of walking wounded. Ms. Garrett's description of those patient's entrance to CPMC (they were possible Ebola and other disease victims from Africa) in search of a diagnosis, and hopefully rescue, was riveting and accurate, and made me beleive that her other information and anecdotes were equally accurate. There's nothing like the ring of Truth to make foreboding tales of pandemics and death keep a reader up nights turning pages. And in the light of news of an emerging influenza pandemic, I returned to "The Coming Plague" for a fast review. It provided all I needed to feel prepared for the unavoidable.

The information and anecdotes in "The Coming Plague" ring true both from a clinician's viewpoint as well as from one who scans the newspapers and medical journals for signs of outbreaks and breakthroughs. Medicine and science race daily to discover, and best, the next plague. The competition is real, and the stakes are almost beyond comprehension. But not beyond the comprehension of those of us who deal with disease and death and the risks inherent in caring for those infected each day. Ms. Garret's descriptions of signs and symptoms, of the history and natural progression of newly discovered and historically familiar diseases, is beleivable, accurate, and ghastly, while avoiding tabloid sensationalism. She has done her awful homework, and the results are spellbinding and educational. In the end, I felt like I'd sat through a series of ID lectures at the feet of someone who'd been there. I brought much of what I learned back to my work. But the most telling result are the nightmares.

Well written, astoundingly accurate and frightening. It is an excellent readable reference volume.

I lost my original copy of the Coming Plague and have mourned its passing ever since. The book is so full of necessary information concerning the vulnerability of the world's peoples, that we are all seriously in danger of complete loss of the world's populations if we do not pay attention to these important facts and frightening possibilities. I especially appreciate Garrett's warning that we must educate the women of all nations if we are to survive!