The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance

While the human race battles itself ... the advantage moves to the microbes' court. They are our predators and they will be victorious if we, Homo sapiens, do not learn how to live in a rational global village that affords the microbes few opportunities.

Her picture is not entirely bleak. Epidemics grow when a disease outbreak is amplified--by contaminated water supplies, by shared needles, by recirculated air, by prostitution. And controlling the amplifiers of disease is within our power; it's a matter of money, people, and will. --Mary Ellen Curtin

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Good, but long, 2008-08-22
This was an excellent book to learn about the emerging hemorrhagic viruses. It also talks about the interactions between humans and microbes and how humans induce their own diseases. What I did not like about this book was the long chapter about HIV/AIDS. It was long and outdated, since numerous advances have been made since the publication of this book. If you are buying the book to learn about HIV/AIDS, buy a more up to date book.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

This Should Be Required Reading HS Level, 2008-02-28
I first read this book shortly after it came out about 12 years ago. I was so angry and scared after realizing the real situation for global disease and treatments or lack thereof. I recently was sorting through books to sell and came across this again. I reread it and became even more angry and frustrated and scared. I think this should be a required text for high school history/science. I think the American public has become immune to any kind of "wake up call" as regards our environment and health issues. We are still living with the colossal failures and screw ups of the Reagan years, now compounded and magnified by the GWB years.

There is not room to detail the reasons one should read this book. We have already had plagues in this country, which have been basically hidden from the public. We allowed the CDC to be gutted by the Reagan administration and who knows were it currently stands. Ronald Reagan can take credit for millions of AID's related deaths because of his blissful and willful ignorance.

Reading this book is a necessity and will benefit you in many but scary ways.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Inspiring, 2008-01-24
In nearly 700 well researched pages, Laurie Garrett has managed to turn a usually dry subject into a gripping tale of disease-warriors combating humanity's oldest enemies. This is only the tip of the iceberg for any respectable medical professional, but for the lay-reader this book contains a wealth of information that is readable and easily digestible.

By turning topics like the Ebola virus, Genetic Engineering and Toxic Shock Syndrome into an easy read, Laurie Garrett transforms complex medical topics into fascinating chunks of information like a true wizard. A must read for anyone with the slightest interest in medicine and science.

This non-fiction book inspired my debut Political Thriller - Patient Zero - about the next avian flu pandemic, which the world is truly bracing for.

Patient Zero - Official ABNA Entrant




1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

More riveting than The Hot Zone , 2007-09-02
If you liked The Hot Zone, you will love this book. The Hot Zone told the scary story of a variant of Ebola that turned out to be harmless to humans. The Coming Plague narrates the history of little-known but lethal diseases such as Machupo, Ebola, Four-Corners Hantavirus, Lassa Fever, Marburg and others. In each of these cases, the list of victims was relatively small, but the onset and progress of these illnesses were frightful. Garrett examines how "disease cowboys" worked backward to patient zero, followed the course of the illness, discovered its means of transmission and identified each disease. In a few cases, the original vector could not be found, despite a careful search. How even medical professionals react when they find out that they too, have the disease is a fascinating psychological study. Often they go into a state of denial, like the researcher in New York who came down with Lassa after studying some samples. At the other extreme was one doctor, who, fearing he was exposed to Ebola, hit the bottle hoping that alcohol would kill the virus. To his relief it turned out to be measles.

A large amount of this book is devoted to AIDS. Garrett details its emergence in the early 80s. She is critical of the government's slow response, which she says was partly due to the insistence of some in the Reagan administration that since it affected only homosexual men it was beneath concern. On the other hand, she suggests that the rampant promiscuity of some members of the gay community didn't help matters either. While there was enough blame to go around, the real heroes were a handful of careful physicians who noted some bizarre symptoms among their gay patients and brought this medical condition to the CDC and the world's attention. While this book presents an excellent history of the emergence of AIDS in both America and Africa, Garrett's information on AIDS is now unfortunately out-of-date.

The author presents more chapters on antibiotic-resistant TB, Legionnaire's Disease, the problem with overdosing farm animals with antibiotics and even Toxic Shock Syndrome. At one point, I bogged down with information overload. But during Garrett's chapters on hemorrhagic and other exotic fevers, this book is difficult to put down.



0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Fascinating and frightening, 2007-07-23
This book, when it came out, pointed out the coming problems in our medical system like antibiotic resistance, long before it became common knowledge. But it also suggests that as we continue to transform our environment, new plagues and diseases will continue to threaten our existence.
My only criticism of the book is that it was a difficult read, because it is very densely packed with information. This book requires patience to read, but it is well worth it.

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