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I just finished reading Crossing Over by Ruben Martinez, A Migrant Family On The Migrant Trail. Didn't think I'd find this all that interesting, but I was surprised, especially reporting on the small towns in the U.S. where the Mexicans have all but taken over, and the resultant mixed marriages.
One town mentioned was Norwalk, Wisconsin (near Sparta), population 564, with a slaughtering plant, in a German/Amish district, where they can't get the locals to work at these plants at $10-$12 an hour. And the adjustments the locals have to make to accommodate them.
Pandemic : tracking contagions, from cholera to Ebola and beyond / Sonia Shah, c2016, Sarah Crichton Books, 362.1 SHAH.
Subjects
Communicable diseases -- Epidemiology -- History.
Public health surveillance.
Pandemics.
Notes
Cholera's child : the microbes' comeback -- The jump : crossing the species barrier at wet markets, pig farms, and South Asian wetlands -- Locomotion : the global dissemination of pathogens through canals, steamships, and jet airplanes -- Filth : the rising tide of feculence, from nineteenth-century New York City to the slums of Port-au-Prince and the factory farms of south China -- Crowds : the amplification of epidemics in the global metropolis -- Corruption : private interests versus public health, or, How Aaron Burr and the Manhattan Company poisoned New York City with cholera -- Blame : cholera riots, AIDS denialism, and vaccine resistance -- The cure : the suppression of John Snow and the limits of biomedicine -- The revenge of the sea : the cholera paradigm -- The logic of pandemics : the lost history of ancient pandemics -- Tracking the next contagion : reimagining our place in a microbial world.
Summary
Scientists agree that a pathogen is likely to cause a global pandemic in the near future. But which one? And how? Over the past fifty years, more than three hundred infectious diseases have either newly emerged or reemerged. Ninety percent of epidemiologists expect that one of them will cause a deadly pandemic sometime in the next two generations. It could be Ebola, avian flu, a drug-resistant superbug, or something completely new. While we can't know which pathogen will cause the next pandemic, by unraveling the story of how pathogens have caused pandemics in the past, we can make predictions about the future. Here, prizewinning science journalist Sonia Shah interweaves history, original reportage, and personal narrative to explore the origins of contagions, drawing parallels between cholera, one of history's most deadly and disruptive pandemic-causing pathogens, and the new diseases that stalk humankind today. To reveal how a new pandemic might develop, Shah tracks each stage of cholera's dramatic journey, from its emergence in the South Asian hinterlands as a harmless microbe to its rapid dispersal across the nineteenth-century world, all the way to its latest beachhead in Haiti. Along the way she reports on the pathogens now following in cholera's footsteps, from the MRSA bacterium that besieges her own family to the never-before-seen killers coming out of China's wet markets, the surgical wards of New Delhi, and the suburban backyards of the East Coast. By delving into the convoluted science, strange politics, and checkered history of one of the world's deadliest diseases, Pandemic reveals what the next global contagion might look like--and what we can do to prevent it.--Adapted from dust jacket.
"Interweaving history, original reportage, and personal narrative, Pandemic explores the origins of epidemics, drawing parallels between the story of cholera-- one of history's most disruptive and deadly pathogens-- and the new pathogens that stalk humankind today"-- Provided by publisher.
Length
viii, 271 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : maps, chapter notes, glossary (v. handy!), index
Interesting book, sheds light on some of the research/tracking/monitoring being done to protect the West & the US particularly. Worth reading, to update my v. old bio class back when.
Pandemic : tracking contagions, from cholera to Ebola and beyond / Sonia Shah, c2016, Sarah Crichton Books, 362.1 SHAH.
[/list]Interesting book, sheds light on some of the research/tracking/monitoring being done to protect the West & the US particularly. Worth reading, to update my v. old bio class back when.
I read that recently. One of the most intriguing things was the idea of fungals becoming a big problem as an infectious agent with climate change. Add that to the worry list.
Another one you might like is Spillover, and one of my favorites about infectious diseases is The Coming Plague. It came out quite a while ago but is a classic work in that genre. If you have an interest in AIDS, I highly recommend a book called Tinderbox. It was fascinating.
I'm just searching for clues @ the scene of the crime
Quote:
Originally Posted by chicagoliz
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Another one you might like is Spillover, and one of my favorites about infectious diseases is The Coming Plague. It came out quite a while ago but is a classic work in that genre. If you have an interest in AIDS, I highly recommend a book called Tinderbox. It was fascinating.
Thanks, I'll look for them. Yah, the animal farming industry has a lot to answer for in the US (in the World?) If we don't curtail overuse & misuse of antibiotics in the World soon, there will be a rising tide of bacteria & other infections that can't be treated @ all. That would mean an end to organ transplants & any major penetrations of the torso for other than dire reasons.
It will also mean the end of surgical vacations in India, the Tiger economies, & etc. As the US State Dept. atrophies & the US military becomes (became?) our chief means of interfacing with the World, Haiti, Sudan, Somalia & a lot of smaller countries with low resources of note nor near transportation/comms chokepoints are likely going to be written off our priorities.
I think the nearing antibiotic crisis, the weather crisis, the water crisis & related side effects will disrupt a lot of our discretionary economy. Some good may come of it all, but it's going to be a tough couple of decades soon, even in the US.
I think the nearing antibiotic crisis, the weather crisis, the water crisis & related side effects will disrupt a lot of our discretionary economy. Some good may come of it all, but it's going to be a tough couple of decades soon, even in the US.
I think climate change will lead to drought, which will lead to mass starvation and war, which will kill off a significant number of humans. Most of the remainder will be knocked out by the microbes.
I can't wait to read that! I have several books on the election on my to read list and on hold at library. They say this one is "awaiting a copy".....wish they would hurry up.
I had a hard time even finding it at the bookstore. Even amazon was out of it for a while.
I think climate change will lead to drought, which will lead to mass starvation and war, which will kill off a significant number of humans. Most of the remainder will be knocked out by the microbes.
What does climate change have to do with non-fiction? It's off-topic. At best, it belongs in either " fiction books" or "True Crime." </sarcasm>
What does climate change have to do with non-fiction? It's off-topic. At best, it belongs in either " fiction books" or "True Crime." </sarcasm>
The agencies that deal with contingencies, possible outcomes & likely outcomes - US military, insurance & especially reinsurance agencies, CIA (once upon a time, they may have ditched their entire open-literature effort since 09/11), US Dept. Agriculture, Dept. Interior (forests, BLM, national parks), the planning departments of major US cities on the coasts & subject to flooding - they're all taking increasingly deeper looks @ trends in temps, rainfall, precipitation, temperature gradients, the retreat of the tree lines, water issues, insect & disease infestations in forests & brush, pollinator die offs, amphibians & bat die offs; there are a lot of canaries dying out there more-or-less on our behalf.
But you have to pay attention in order to get the message.
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Just what the Dr. ordered
