Fr. 56.50

Ending Epidemics - A History of Escape from Contagion

English · Hardback

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Informationen zum Autor Richard Conniff is a National Magazine Award-winning writer for Smithsonian magazine, The Atlantic , National Geographic , and other publications, and a past Guggenheim Fellow. Among his many books are The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth ; Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time: My Life Doing Dumb Stuff with Animals ; The Natural History of the Rich: A Field Guide ; and, most recently, House of Lost Worlds: Dinosaurs, Dynasties, and the Story of Life on Earth . Conniff has been a commentator on NPR's Marketplace and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times . Klappentext "From the discovery of microorganisms to the end of smallpox, the story of how we came to understand the infectious diseases that once killed us & how we might escape such diseases in the future"-- Zusammenfassung How scientists saved humanity from the deadliest infectious diseases—and what we can do to prepare ourselves for future epidemics. After the unprecedented events of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may be hard to imagine a time not so long ago when deadly diseases were a routine part of life. It is harder still to fathom that the best medical thinking at that time blamed these diseases on noxious miasmas, bodily humors, and divine dyspepsia. This all began to change on a day in April 1676, when a little-known Dutch merchant described bacteria for the first time. Beginning on that day in Delft and ending on the day in 1978 when the smallpox virus claimed its last known victim, Ending Epidemics explains how we came to understand and prevent many of our worst infectious diseases—and double average life expectancy.   Ending Epidemics tells the story behind “the mortality revolution,” the dramatic transformation not just in our longevity, but in the character of childhood, family life, and human society. Richard Conniff recounts the moments of inspiration and innovation, decades of dogged persistence, and, of course, periods of terrible suffering that stir individuals, institutions, and governments to act in the name of public health. Stars of medical science feature in this drama, but lesser-known figures also play a critical role. And while the history of germ theory is central to this story, Ending Epidemics also describes the importance of everything from sanitation improvements and the discovery of antibiotics to the development of the microscope and the syringe—technologies we now take for granted. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface: The Healing ix 1 What the Draper Saw 1 2 Deadly Preconceptions 11 3 Foreign Bodies 17 4 Precursors 25 5 Ridiculous Diseases, Inconceivable Ideas 31 6 Buying the Pox 39 7 Slaying the Speckled Monster 51 8 An Angel's Trumpet 59 9 The Great Sanitary Awakening 69 10 Finding Pathogens 81 11 The Semmelweis Reflex 89 12 Making Sense of Cholera 99 13 The Broad Street Pump 109 14 Louis Pasteur: The Rising 119 15 The Subtle Foe 131 16 The Mystery of the Cursed Meadows 137 17 A New Vaccine 145 18 The Bible of Bacteriology 155 19 Defining the Indefinable Something 161 20 (Re)discovering Cholera 171 21 A Sacred Delirium 179 22 Immunity and the Strangling Angel 191 23 Deadly Carriers 205 24 The Beast in the Mosquito 213 25 Fit for Duty 223 26 A Pathogen too Far 233 27 Midnight Work 239 28 The Antibacterial Revolution 249 29 Penicillin 257 30 Race to the Vaccine 271 31 Zero Pox 289 Epilogue: The Plague Next Time 305 Acknowledgments 311 Notes 313 Index 341...

Product details

Authors Richard Conniff, Conniff Richard
Publisher The MIT Press
 
Languages English
Product format Hardback
Released 11.04.2023
 
EAN 9780262047968
ISBN 978-0-262-04796-8
No. of pages 376
Dimensions 162 mm x 236 mm x 31 mm
Subjects Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > General

Medicine: general issues, MEDICAL / General, Medicine / Healthcare: general issues / topics

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