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Cargando... Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond (2016)por Sonia Shah
   Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro.   ) JessicaReadsThings | Dec 2, 2021 |  ) paven | Jan 26, 2021 | This book is a history of past epidemics/pandemics, together with thoughts and predictions about possible future epidemics/pandemics of diseases old and new. Each chapter of the book relates to a particular stage/requirement for the development of a pandemic, as follows: 1. "The Jump"--how, where and when pathogens, old and new, move from a host to humans. 2. "Locomotion"--how pathogens spread among humans. There is an interesting example of a new pathogen, NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamose) which has spread because of the growth in "medical tourism." 3. "Filth"--the role poor sanitation has played in the spread of pathogens. We think we're safe in modern times, but then she points out things I've never thought of--diseases spread by cat and dog feces, not to mention people who live downwind of factory-farms raising pigs. Also, in present-day Haiti, only 19% of its population has access to toilets or latrines. 4. "Crowds"--Urban crowding facilitates the spread. In addition, as civilization moves into previously undeveloped areas, new pathogens are exposed. 5. "Corruption"--We can't always rely on our public officials to do the right thing. An interesting historic example was how Aaron Burr received a lucrative contract to bring clean water to New York City. However, he pocketed most of the money and tapped into a contaminated water source. In addition, officials are frequently reluctant to impose quarantines or to issue health alerts, usually for economic reasons. Modern examples of this abound, from the Chinese authorities at first hiding and then downplaying the initial outbreak of SARS, to Saudi Arabia seeking to stifle the reporting of MERS, to India downplaying the significance of NDM-1. Drug companies are complicit in pushing for the overuse of antibiotics, resulting in the development of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. In addition, many of our health policies are strongly influenced or even controlled by corporations and other entities that have conflicts of interest. For example, insecticide companies help WHO set malaria policy, even though the need for their product would be eliminated by the eradication of malaria. Today, 75% of WHO's budget comes from voluntary contributions, and many of the donors earmark what the contributions can be used for. In a recent year 91% of WHO's voluntary contributions were earmarked for diseases that account for only 8% of global mortality. 6. "Blame"--examples abound. For example, Haitians blamed UN aid workers for the cholera outbreak after the earthquake. South Africa in the 1980's disputed stories by Western journalists about the AIDS crisis in Africa. Many people in developing countries are suspicious of vaccination programs, sometimes suspecting that they are actually being used for sterilization purposes. (Not to mention people in developed countries avoiding vaccinations as causing autism). 7."The Cure"--scientific research to develop cures and programs for water purification. 8. "Revenge of the Sea"--The world has been brought infinitely closer together as the result of fossil fuels, which facilitates the spread of pathogens. This chapter also tracks the spread of new types of cholera, the hosts for which are moved by ocean currents which are changing as our climate changes. 9. "The Logic of Pandemics"--a discussion of how our genetic makeup helps/hinders the spread of pathogens to ensure that there will always be some humans to outwit any plague. 10. "Tracking the Next Pandemic"--our current surveillance systems are inadequate. This may also tie into "Corruption." This was an eye-opening and informative book. Recommended. 3 1/2 stars (  ) arubabookwoman | Feb 2, 2018 |  ebr_mills | Mar 23, 2017 | ddonahue | Jun 11, 2016 |
 Yet once you get past the unfriendly statistics of the book’s introduction, and once you get past the chilling biology lesson of Chapter 1 — which explains how these sneaky organisms jump from one species to the next — “Pandemic” is far less terrifying, perhaps because errant microbes are only one component of what makes a pandemic a pandemic... Ms. Shah uses cholera, one of the most obdurate of pandemics, as a paradigm to explain how new deadly pathogens both emerge and circulate....But this structuring conceit is also useful for simplifying an unwieldy topic. A discussion about the East India Company’s expansion into the wetlands in the Bay of Bengal, which exposed many Indian workers to the tiny crustaceans that carry vibrio cholera, becomes the perfect segue to discuss how modern deforestation in Guinea encouraged more interaction between people and fruit bats, which are thought to carry Ebola. For those who don’t know much about the history of cholera, Ms. Shah’s dense, compact book is a decent primer, explaining how new forms of transportation encouraged the spread of this waterborne disease, as did rising urban density, as did political corruption. (It was Aaron Burr who thwarted an attempt to bring clean water from the Bronx River into New York City — as if this man needed any more negative publicity.) PremiosListas de sobresalientes
"From the author of The Fever, a wide-ranging inquiry into the origins of pandemics 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, from Ebola and avian influenza to drug-resistant superbugs. More than three hundred infectious diseases have emerged or reemerged in new territory during the past fifty years, and 90 percent of epidemiologists expect that one of them will cause a disruptive, deadly pandemic sometime in the next two generations. To reveal how that might happen, Sonia Shah tracks each stage of cholera's dramatic journey from harmless microbe to world-changing pandemic, from its 1817 emergence in the South Asian hinterlands to its rapid dispersal across the nineteenth-century world and its latest beachhead in Haiti. She reports on the pathogens following in cholera's footsteps, from the MRSA bacterium that besieges her own family to the never-before-seen killers emerging from China's wet markets, the surgical wards of New Delhi, the slums of Port-au-Prince, 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 epidemic might look like-and what we can do to prevent it"--
"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"-- No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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 Google Books — Cargando...GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)362.1Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Social problems of & services to groups of people People with physical illnessesClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio: (3.9)
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