Customer Reviews

SARS War

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I agree with the other reviewers that this book is, by now, hopelessly out-dated.

With such rapid progress made in tracing and understanding the illness, it is actually quite irresponsible of the authors and publisher to have published a book on SARS so prematurely. As far as I can see, some of the information here are only correct up to the first week of April 2003. All subsequent developments, which may have disproved earlier hypotheses contained in this book, have been ignored or are otherwise absent.

Unless one can keep up with the latest developments through news reports, this book, instead of being informative, can be a source of misleading information.

Despite the comparatively low retail price, I don't think this book is worth getting at all.

I found this book to be extremely unsatisfactory. The authors have rushed their manuscript to the printer so soon after the start of the epidemic that many salient facts about the virus and the disease could not be included in time for publication. I just can't understand why the authors didn't wait until more facts about the disease have been established before publishing their work if they do intend to provide the public with useful information about SARS.

The coverage of the Sars outbreak in Hong Kong (the place where I live) is also far from satisfactory. Many of the important events have not been mentioned. Some research results have been totally ignored. There is also not much analysis of the initial outbreak at the hospitals. Such sloppy scholarship is unacceptable, even if the book is intended for the mass market.

I can only give this book one star at most.

This book is short, sometimes repetitive, and already out-of-date, even considering the date of publication (April 2003). For someone who needs a quick non-technical summary of what is online and what has been reported in the international news, this book will suffice, although somewhat marginally. The authors of the various articles discuss various strategies for dealing with SARS, and there is a Q&A section at the end of the book.

There are some omissions in the book, particularly in the area of hard science. For example, the complete genetic sequence of the SARS virus is now available, but this is not mentioned in the book. The sequence has also been BLASTed, but the results of the BLAST search are not discussed in the book either. In addition, there are some groups who have asked whether the SARS virus was the result of genetic engineering, and therefore it would have been informative if the book would have discussed these topics, to alleviate any concerns in this regard. If recombination played a role in the origin of the SARS virus, this would show up in its sequence. An attempt to create the SARS virus via recombination from different viruses would show up in the sequence, parts of which would appear different from a phylogenetic viewpoint. The SARS virus has been classified as a coronavirus, and these types of viruses have been subjected to genetic manipulation in the laboratory in the last fifteen years.

These concerns and others in the molecular biology of SARS are being addressed daily in laboratories all over the world. This book is targeted to non-scientists and non-specialists and so is limited in scope. If updated to reflect these developments, it would be much more useful to those who need to understand the real dangers and limitations of the SARS outbreak.

I don't think this short book is good at all. Like the reader below, I found the information in the book to outdated. While the authors may wish to alert people on the risk of SARS, it's often inappropriate to rush out such a kind of book so soon, in particular when our knowledge of the disease is advancing by the day. Because of this, I don't think the book can be recommended.

Despite the rather small asking price for this book, I found it almost totally useless. Not only are most of those precautionary measures listed in the book readily obtainable from newspapers and websites around the world, most importantly, the work is seriously out-dated.

As can be seen, the authors have rushed their manuscripts to the printing room in such a hurry that they could only put in information that is available to them before the middle of April. However, as Sars is a brand new disease, lots of things were by then unknown, and indeed much of the important scientific discoveries about the disease and the Sars virus occurred subsequent to the completion of the poorly-penned manuscript. As such, the information in this flimsy work is not only far from complete, it can at times be rather misleading, too.

I can only view this book as an attempt by the authors to cash in on the world-wide fear about Sars. This kind of book should be avoided by all who want to know the true face of the disease.

This publication is, to me, an utter disappointment. Not only is it not up-to-date, and therefore of practically no use to the more serious reader, its contents are also sloppily put together. Insights and detailed analysis are also short in supply. It consequently fails to do justice to both the new disease as well as those fighting it on the front-line.

This book is almost useful for me, as it throws practically no fresh insight on the latest findings on Sars. The contents are poorly produced and evidently put together in great haste. A one-star publication.