Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond

Over the past 50 years, more than 300 infectious diseases have emerged for the first time or recurring in new territories. Experts around the world are busy preparing for a devastating deadly epidemic. In Pandemic, award-winning science journalist Sonia Shah shows how it can happen by drawing parallels between cholera, one of the world's most dangerous and terrifying pathogens, and the new diseases we face today. Describing the stages of cholera's dramatic journey from harmless microbe to world-changing pandemic, Shah talks about the pathogens that follow her, from the MRSA bacterium that struck her own family, to new, never-before-seen killers appearing in Chinese food markets, in surgical wards in Delhi, in the slums of Port-au-Prince and on the urban outskirts of the East Coast. The picture is impressive and disturbing. The book explores in depth the complex science, bizarre politics, and convoluted history of one of the world's worst diseases, warning of a possible future that cannot be ignored.