pandemic tracking contagions from cholera to ebola and beyond

The book seemed well cited (I didn’t vet her sources, but there were citations where I felt they were needed) and I was impressed by the author’s expertise. She also didn’t hesitate to bring in discussions of other diseases and her personal experiences when they helped make a point, so the focus on cholera wasn’t limiting. It made the discussion of factors that contribute to pandemics more than hypothetical. The author’s choice to organize this book with one topic per chapter and with a focus on one specific disease as an example was inspired. I love learning about science and history and this was a great mix of both.

She also explores how those factors have changed or stayed the same over time and describes some of the challenges that might face us when the next pandemic strikes. Using cholera as a case study, Sonia Shah describes some of the factors that can lead to pandemics. Summary: I couldn’t ask for more than from my nonfiction than this engagingly told story with its mix of history, science, and important predictions about the future of medicine.Īlthough every pandemic seems uniquely and surprisingly deadly, there are some common principles that can be learned from our past. Links: Bookshop (affiliate link) | Goodreads ★★★★★ Title: Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond

(Mar.#Futuristic Friday Review and Giveaway: Pandemic Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency. Shah’s warning is certainly troubling, and this important medical and social history is worthy of attention-and action. “For most of our history, we’ve been unaware of pathogens’ role in our lives,” Shah writes, adding that most of the challenges still lay ahead. Shah then meticulously dissects the conditions that made cholera’s transmission so effective and new outbreaks inevitable, including filthy water, overcrowding, political corruption and inaction, scapegoating, and even the expedited expansion of the human population by the harnessing of fossil fuels. with emigrants from cholera-plagued Europe heading to the eastern coast of North America-at the time there were 5,800 reported cases and nearly 3,000 deaths in New York City alone. As an example, Shah tracks the waterborne Vibrio cholerae bacterium from its home in the southwest Indian Ocean as it radiated from China and India to Paris in 1832, and then sailed to the U.S.

Of particular note is the challenge of tracking those pathogens that remain uncontained and which could overtake humans in a pandemic. In this absorbing, complex, and ominous look at the dangers posed by pathogens in our daily lives, science journalist Shah ( The Fever) cautions that there are no easy solutions.

Pandemic tracking contagions from cholera to ebola and beyond