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Spillover: Animal Infections And The Next Human Pandemic (2013)

by David Quammen(Favorite Author)

4.22 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0393346617 (ISBN13: 9780393346619)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

review 1: An extremely timely book to read, given that we are currently going through a global freakout over Ebola, which is covered in this book. But this book covers much more than just one particular disease. It takes you through a rogue's gallery of diseases, famous and obscure, which all share one property: they originated in a different species. AIDS, Lyme disease, bubonic plague, Hendra virus disease, and rabies all fit into this category, along with many other potentially dangerous diseases. Quammen covers a lot of ground, and you should find it fascinating, albeit more than a bit disturbing. Still, there is room for optimism. The Spanish flu that decimated Europe and America at the end of World War I came from seabirds, and we survived that.
review 2: It is quit... moree rare to read a book about infection diseases and actually think that it could make a great detective story.David Quammen has written this fascinated book about zoonoses, the animal infections transmissible to humans, and has made epidemiology look like a super-exciting field. I almost regretted for not taking biology more seriously during my University years.His vivid style and his ability to explain complex subjects clearly makes the book gripping and lively and the material accessible to everyone. Quammen examines the most important viruses HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Ebola, Hendra, Nippah (never heard of Hendra and Nippah before), SARS and Marburg, including the story of their outbreaks, the importance of their reservoir hosts and the environmental factors that altered the host’s ecology and facilitated the movement of viruses beyond their natural ecological niches. The chapter on HIV/AIDS is quite fascinated, it reads like a detective story.Another interesting part of the book is the description of the places that Quammen visited while researching for the book. It makes the story more dynamic and animated, especially if you – like me – love to travel and learn about different cultures. It is also explains why isolating countries won’t keep viruses away. Travel advices or restrictions will not stop people to be curious and adventurous or simply to want to trade with each other. less

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