Reviews (4)

Covered most of my questions
I think the book was well written and I liked the author's writing style. Its a little outdated though. I would like to see an updated edition with more data on the newer anti herpes drugs such as Valtrex. Its been 5 years, so its time to get some newer information out there.

The best I have found.
This book is a comprehensive collection of questions that a person (infected or not) probably has. And there are questions that may not have even been thought of.

Stepehen Sacks "speaks" to the reader in a way that is humane and almost comforting. He answers these questions and presents the facts in a straightforward, realistic, non-judgemental and responsible way.

Some things this book explains are:

Symptoms.

Medical aspects of infection/ reinfection (in a way easily understood by those not in the medical profession.)

Type 1 vs. Type 2.

Means of transmission.

Management of the virus.

Asymptomatic vs. having symptoms and not knowing it.

Herpes and cancer.

It also addresses pshcological concerns and neonatal concerns.

It contains color plates that visually exemplify the virus.

This book will allow those who read it to have the knowledge they need to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Read this book with your highligter and a notepad by your side.

This book saved my life . . . my self-esteem, marriage, etc!
This book is very informative. I learned more from this book than I did from the multitude of web sites on the subject. It's THE book to give to someone close who doesn't understand the disease.

If you or someone you love has herpes... Read this book !!!
This book not only explains and informs about the physical aspects of herpes better than any other I have ever seen, but it also places all of this information within a "ethically and morally neutral" framework, in which the reader has the choice and is presented with alternative perspectives about how to come to grips with their own infection.... the risk to others... to tell or not to tell... did my partner cheat on me... all of these important questions which are raised by herpes (in addition to the physical ones) are addressed in this book. If you read this book, you will be less risk to others, and you will have made important decisions about your life from an informed perspective. Don't delay... this is a wonderful book. ... Read more

Book Description

The Third Edition of this classic reference is thoroughlyrevised to incorporate the past five years' discoveries on thereplication, molecular biology, pathogenesis, and medical aspects ofviruses. Coverage includes new material on human immunodeficiencyviruses, emerging viruses, prions, papillomaviruses, hepatitis C virus,hantaviruses, herpesviruses, vaccines, and viruses and cancer. Seventy-two chapters comprehensively examine the molecular biology,replication, biology, and clinical significance of all known virusfamilies. New to the Third Edition are chapters on astroviruses; Flaviviridae,including hepatitis C virus and pestivirus; humanherpesvirus 7; hepatitis E virus; and lactate dehydrogenase-elevatingvirus and related viruses. An updated section on general virologyincludes four new chapters on viruses infecting plants; insects; yeast,fungi, and parasites; and bacteria. Illustrations include a new sectionof color plates dealing primarily with the principles of virusstructure. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A FINE VIROLOGY YARDSTICK
There is hardly any significant fact about viruses that missed-out in this edition of "Fields Virology". Page after page, this sound all-inclusive reference doles out authoritative information on both viruses and viral syndromes. From taxonomy to etiology, metamorphosis to replication; the analyses of this text is grand. The same applies to its attached CD-ROM. Its practical outlook was intended to benefit both microbiologists and pathologists. Bernard Fields and his colleagues made their mark with this book. It is a great effort.
However, most botanist may not be pleased to know that little attention was paid to plant viruses. Again, many potential buyers may be demoralized by the rather high price that this virology-set demands.

Another Bible. Amazing viral world
It covers all fields of virology. Perfect and wonderful ! Easy to understand. I really recommend this book to who is involved in biology ... Read more

Book Description

Internationally renowned infectious disease experts offer guidance in recognizing, diagnosing, treating, and preventing one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Clinically focused and comprehensive, the book covers the essentials of diagnosis and syndromes in children and adults. Examines antimicrobial resistance and balances expert, practice-oriented coverage with just the right amount of microbiology concepts. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The book for medical man
This book is not in detail as bibles of infectious diseases, but it is still worth reading. For an ID man, this book should be used as a supplementary one not a texbook. For its small size, disease pathogenesis can not be dicussed in depth and this is the major drawback of this book. For general internalists, this book is a good one that you can find numerous infectious informations. Update is also necessary for this book.

studied for the ID boards
I used this book to study for the ID boards in 2001. I found
it well organized and thorough enough for most topics. The travel medicine sections were excellent as were the sections on
bacterial infections. The chapters on viral infection could
have been a bit more thorough but were for the most part adequate. The sections on parasitic diseases were very well
written and appropriate for board review. Overall, I recommend
this text for ID fellows and ID practicing physicians but not for physicians in other fields. ... Read more

Book Description

From the historical beginnings of Haldane's original hypothesis to current research, this book evaluates infectious diseases from an evolutionary perspective. It surveys the latest information related to major infections, such as malaria, influenza and leishmaniasis. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Where's your next disease coming from? From anywhere in the world--from overflowing sewage in Cairo, from a war zone in Rwanda, from an energy-efficient office building in California, from a pig farm in China or North Carolina. "Preparedness demands understanding," writes Pulitzer-winning journalist Laurie Garrett, and in this precursor to Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health, she shows a clear understanding of the patterns lying beneath the new diseases in the headlines (AIDS, Lyme) and the old ones resurgent (tuberculosis, cholera). As the human population explodes, ecologies collapse and simplify, and disease organisms move into the gaps. As globalization continues, diseases can move from one country to another as fast as an airplane can fly.

While the human race battles itself ... the advantage moves to the microbes' court. They are our predators and they will be victorious if we, Homo sapiens, do not learn how to live in a rational global village that affords the microbes few opportunities.

Her picture is not entirely bleak. Epidemics grow when a disease outbreak is amplified--by contaminated water supplies, by shared needles, by recirculated air, by prostitution. And controlling the amplifiers of disease is within our power; it's a matter of money, people, and will. --Mary Ellen Curtin ... Read more

Reviews (51)

Survival of the fittest.....
It's taken me a week to read Laurie Garrett's THE COMING PLAGUE. I work for one of the organizations Garrett cites frequently, and was aware of much of the content of the book before I began to read, but it helps to be reminded.

In the mid-70s I studied epidemiology, demography and biostatistics at Georgetown as part of my graduate work. One of the statistics I learned to compute was a neonatal mortality rate based on specific causes of death--infectious and other. We were convinced the infectious disease rates had been dropping for hundreds of years owing to human intervention and would continue to do so. Shortly after I graduated, drug resistant strains of microbes caused the infectious rates to climb again.

The world's population has grown dramatically in the past 100 years (1.5 billion to 6 billion) and in all liklihood will continue to expand a while longer (15 billion by 2050), but the AIDS plague with all it's attendent drug-resisitant diseases may do for humanity what the Black Plague did for humanity in the 14th Century--eliminate much of it.

Garrett says the microbes don't have to win, but I'm afraid they will. "Know-nothing" politicians, "capable-survivor" bureacrats, tyrants like Idi Amin and Sadam Hussein, wars spurred by ethnic hatred and religious fanaticism, homophobia, misogyny, unbridled and unregulated international commerce and exploitation of labor, degradation of the world's forests and oceans, and refugee movements all ensure the microbes will win. From the tuberculosis epidemics of the industrial age of the 19th century, to the spread of drug resistant malaria by troops and civilians in WWII, to the current spread of AIDS and drug resistent forms of TB across the world, the germs are having a field day. Garrett's book's subtitle is "Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance" -- and yes, Al Gore is mentioned-- a man who actually understands the disease/ecological balancing issues.

The world took a giant backstep in the 1980s when the U.S. leaders pretty much looked the other way and AIDS got the upper hand. With the return of the same politicians to power, why shouldn't we dispair, especially when the first act of the new administration is to pull funding from family planning agencies, who are fighting the very factors that can lead to the end of humanity--overpopulation and unprotected sex.

I kept thinking of Edgar Allen Poe's short story, "The Mask of the Red Death" as I read this book--During a plague, a group of wealthy nobles and their families sequester themselves away in a castle where they think they are safe from the disease. One night they hold a masked ball and discover that death is in their midst. You can't run and you can't hide--death is in our midst. So, you better act. Garrett lists the things we need to do, and if your're reading this review, you probably already know many of them, but, read her book anyway, just to make sure.

This is your wake up call
If you live in the comfy West, Third World health issues can seem about as remote as McDonald's on Mars. Laurie Garrett's accessible, passionate book reminds us that despite the cultural, political and economical crevasses that separate nations, humankind is united by a number of factors, and vulnerability to the microbial world is one of them. Disease has no respect for boundaries and complacency is our enemy. The Coming Plague is indeed an elaborate, riveting detective story and Garrett's CDC cowboy heroes who became the cavalry in the most remote and dangerous of locations in their search for the source of contagious disease, became my own. I note that there has been criticism of Garrett for for alleged scientific and research inaccuracies. The message is still crystal clear: the health of humankind needs a global perspective and global policy. It's a weighty subject but Garrett turns it into a thrilling read that I couldn't put down. I came away convinced that no matter who we are, we should be cannily aware of the newly emerging diseases, the formidable power of the microbial world, and our responsibility as individuals in contributing to global health. Garrett explains how health and disease have a domino effect. What goes around, comes around. This is Buddhist philosophy in practice. Single actions have universal ramifications. For example, Garrett shows how misuse of antibiotics in treating tuberculosis in the former Soviet Union impacts on vulnerability to the disease worldwide. Reading of the losing battle against malaria deeply saddened me when winning the battle seemed to be within grasp. It appears that politics and medicine are joined at the hip. Some years ago Rachel Carson's Silent Spring influenced me. The Coming Plague is similarly inspiring. And perhaps McDonald's on Mars doesn't seem so far away after all.

Good information buried in a bunch liberal crap.
Garrett presents much very interesting information about some of the most deadly diseases in the world, like Machupo and Lassa fever. There are fantastic accounts of how these diseases have been tracked to their sources, or attempted to be tracked to their sources, and how they have been combated thus far. The point is quite well made that these threats are still looming on the horizon and humanity will need to be continually finding more effective ways of control. However, along with all the true accounts and bits of scientific relevance is a running liberal commentary, which is to be expected from somebody with ties to Harvard, I guess. It slows down the narrative with its inevitable logical contradictions, especially when dealing with the AIDS issue and "alternative lifestyles"--homosexuality is shown to be one of the major causes of the spread of AIDS, yet the problem is not homosexuality, but ineffective control measures...hmmmm (and somehow, even things like States' rights get brought in). The book is at times exciting and frightening, but you have to be able to stomach a large dose of liberal hogwash in your diet to be able to choke this one down. Personally, I had trouble with some bad after-taste.

The Coming Plague
Outstanding! This book is an excellent read! I read the Hot Zone 2 years ago and this is even better. Garrett gives fantastic insight and detail concerning many deadly viruses that have attacked humankind in the 20th century and continue to threaten us. Not only this, but she goes on to highlight the feats and bravery of the scientist that have gone to battle with these horrific microbes over the past century. A stunning account of how disease is a part of nature, yet we as humans often aid to its spread. A sobering, eye opening book. As unsettling as it is, some nights it was hard to put down. One of the best books I've ever read. Bravo for Ms. Garrett

there is hope
as scary as this book is . it goes offer hope that someday the human population will drop.
and maybe just maybe the enviroment will again stabilize itself ... Read more

Book Description

This unique new self-instructional tool makes it manageable and efficient to master infectious diseases. The book introduces common pathogens and disorders as they would be encountered in rounds or in practice. Each chapter is organized to provide all the required basic and clinical information quickly but completely. This novel resource also provides a generous assortment of clear illustrations, clinical vignettes, and self-assessment and reinforcement tools throughout. Perfect for the 30 day infectious disease clerkship. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Very time efficient book that gets straight to the point
I came across this book randomly in my medical school library and was a bit leary of it because of the title. "XYZ in 30 days" type titles sound hokey to me, but the book itself is anything but.

The main strength of the text is its clear, logical approach in explaining the various infectious disease syndromes. Very straightforward, great summaries of key points every few pages, and insightful, readily understandable diagrams (and good photos). Too many books written for med students present similar material but too heavily from the perspective of basic microbiology (genetics, virulence factors up the ying-yang, research speculations, etc) which is generally NOT useful for medical students (when in excess). We primarily need to know clinical presentation, course of illness, diagnostic criteria, and treatment protocols. For these categories this book is wonderful and hard to beat. It also balances this with the obligatory basic microbiology but it is not in excess and seemingly always clinically relevant.

Really clear!
This book is very easy,friendly to read and learn,and covers all areas from Infectology required in General Internal Medicine or primary care.. ... Read more

Book Description

Revised and expanded, the third edition of this respected manual offers the latest advice on preventing, evaluating, and managing diseases that can be acquired in tropical environments and foreign countries. A solid introduction to the subject, it’s handy for systematic review and for quick reference. New content includes information on Lyme disease, HIV, infants and children, women, air travel, and more. ... Read more

Amazon.com

No small themes for historian William McNeill: he is a writer of big, sweeping books, from The Rise of the West to The History of the World. Plagues and Peoples considers the influence of infectious diseases on the course of history, and McNeill pays special attention to the Black Death of the 13th and 14th centuries, which killed millions across Europe and Asia. (At one point, writes McNeill, 10,000 people in Constantinople alone were dying each day from the plague.) With the new crop of plagues and epidemics in our own time, McNeill's quiet assertion that "in any effort to understand what lies ahead the role of infectious disease cannot properly be left out of consideration" takes on new significance. ... Read more

Reviews (32)

GREAT BOOK
I read this book for a history class and loved it. The thesis was interesting, the ideas well-supported, and the examples fascinating. McNeill writes clearly, includes the perfect amount of detail and factual support, and avoids esotericism. His claims, like components of a mathematic or scientific theory, complement one another in a convincing and cohesive fashion such that by the end of the book, one cannot help but be at least partially convinced of the important relationship between paracitism and human civilization throughout history. Plagues and Peoples is truly legitimate, fascinating and innovative. For those who have any interest in history, anthropology, sociology, biology, or a plethora of other fields, as well as for any who merely appreciate interesting analytical thought and are looking for a good read, this book is really one you won't want to miss.

pretty good of disease in society
Diseases has been a big factor in human development. Disease has helped dictate where people have been able to live and create civilizations, helped in the conquest of countries and created a whole series of social ills in congested urban areas. McNeill takes a look at the effects of disease through human society.

The first chapter Man The Hunter focuses on disease in early human history. The following chapter Breakthrough to History focuses on the development of agriculture and permanent human settlements. The next chapter, Confluence of Civilized Disease Pools focuses on the role disease had on early civilizations in places such as China and India. The next chapter is Impact of the Mogul Empire and how this early large empire had an effect on disease. The next chapter is Transoceanic Exchanges focusing on the spearding of disease between the Eastern and Western Hempshires and its implications. The last chapter is Ecological Impact of Medical Science Focusing on how humans have been able to control diseas through means such as vacinations.

Good book to get a better understanding of history.

A very detailed explanation of disease's role in history
Every high school history student knows that the Black Death swept through Europe, and that diseases like smallbox, measles and so on were decisive in allowing the colonization of the Americas. But these two statements while universally accepted, are generally left at that and the causes go unexplored.

This book is a very concise history of plagues and what built up to these two grim realities. McNeill goes much beyond these basics and provides in intricate details the events that allowed that to happen. What allowed these disease pools to eventually come into being? This book provides the details to the answer to that question from the early days of civilization in Mesopotamia to the effect that plague had on the periphery of the Roman and Chinese empires to the effect that the Mongols had in fully unifying this disease pool, and once a reality, the devasating effect that they had on the world.

In short, if you want to understand in fine detail the causes and events that built up the "eastern hemisphere disease pool", read this book.

One of the best
This is one of a very tiny number of books which I have bought in bulk and distributed to friends and colleagues. Although the prose style can be unnecessarily turgid and academic and will win no prizes, the ideas are so stimulating intellectually that one gradually ceases to notice the style. McNeill's central thesis, both original and plausible, allows one to review the entire history of civilization in a new light and to make testable and almost always correct predictions. Few books have the ability to so change one's view of history. I first read this book many years ago and it has held up well. Read and ponder. It may change your world view.

Will change the way you look at the world
This is one of those handful of books that will change the way you look at our world. History will never seem quite the same when you finish.
Several earlier reviewers have done a great job of summarizing and analyzing the book. It is unfortunate that this book was given as a high school assignment, and then the students were asked to review it on Amazon. Is it any wonder they gave it 2 or 3 stars, and said it was difficult to understand? Most 15-year-olds do not have the background to fully appreciate this type of work, and unfortunately their reviews skew the book's rating. ... Read more

Book Description

This brilliant work of social history reveals the hidden impact of syphilis on many of history's famous figures--from Wilde to Hitler to Abraham Lincoln--and its influence on the culture they created.

Was Beethoven experiencing syphilitic euphoria when he composed "Ode to Joy"? Did van Gogh paint "Crows Over the Wheatfield" in a fit of diseased madness right before he shot himself?

Was syphilis a stowaway on Columbus's return voyage to Europe? The answers to these provocative questions are likely "yes," claims Deborah Hayden in this riveting investigation of the effects of the "Pox" on the lives and works of world figures from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries. Writing with remarkable insight and narrative flair, Hayden argues that biographers and historians have vastly underestimated the influence of what Thomas Mann called "this exhilarating yet wasting disease." Shrouded in secrecy, syphilis was accompanied by wild euphoria and suicidal depression, megalomania and paranoia, profoundly affecting sufferers' worldview, their sexual behavior and personality, and, of course, their art. Deeply informed and courageously argued, Pox has already been heralded as a major contribution to our understanding of genius, madness, and creativity. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

genuinely interesting and well-researched, if unfocused
PERSPECTIVE: physician with interest in infectious diseases

Ms. Hayden's thesis here is an interesting one - not only did syphilis afflict many well-known historical figures, but its late-stage effects on the mind (as she terms it, "syphilitic euphoria") contributed to the creative zenith of authors and aritists, as well as shaping the lives and deeds of the powerful and influential. The first section of the book deals with the historical origins (and controversies) surrounding the origins of syphilis outbreaks in the late 1400's, as well as a reasonably adequate lay description of the disease. The main section deals with several figures from the 19th and 20th century, including well-known composers, philosophers, authors, artists, and political figures, none of whom have been confirmed to have syphilis, but suspected of such to greater or lesser degrees. In each case, she makes an argument for their infection and its effect on their lives and work, based on available historical documents, medical records, etc... The final sections include brief paragraphs discussing confirmed famous syphilitics, a list of general clues the author used in analyzing each case, and a reproduction of a 1926 case study on a patient.

Overall, the novel is flows well, and is easy and entertaining to read. Ms. Hayden's research is extensive and well-documented, and while she is not formally medically trained, she has certainly pored over medical texts from previous centuries up to today in order to educate herself and her readers.

Despite this, there are several issues of note. The "syphilitic euphoria" as a genesis for works of genius, medically, seems a bit of a strech in both its existance (as she characterizes it) and influence. It seems as though she loses her focus at some point - while earlier chapters, such as those on Schubert and Nietzsche, seem goal-oriented towards proving the presence of the infection, and its role in their work, other chapters (Lincoln and Hitler, notably) seem more like meandering discussions that, while interesting, ultimately come to no real conclusion as to the role of the disease. Additionally, while she seems convinced herself that each subject indeed had syphilis, and she works to makes a good case for each, some of her leaps of fact and logic seem a bit long. Ms. Hayden does occasionally make factual medical errors when discussing certain symptoms and their associations. Along those lines, she seems much more comfortable discussing such facts in the less precise medical terminology of "days gone by" than in present-day terms - this may be rooted in both her supposition that modern physicians know nothing of true end-stage syphilis (because we've been able to treat the infection early, successfully, with antibiotics for many decades, although how she can read the same old syphilis texts that physicians can, and be better than them at its diagnosis is a bit of a mystery to me) and that less-specific terminology allows her to make her cases better. The last sections also strike me as "fluff," of mild interest only.

FINAL WORD: The above quibbles aside, there is a lot to enjoy here, especially given Ms. Hayden's excellent historical research and entertaining writing style. A worthwhile read, but keep in mind that a lot of the author's conjectures are just that - conjectures. Buy it, check it out from the library, or buy it and donate it to your local library.

Best Book on a Hidden Disease
I am a medical doctor and long-term student of VD in American history. Ms. Hayden has succeeded in a difficult task: writing convincingly about a medical subject when she is not a medical person. She enlisted help from the best of the best, such as my old professor Dr. Eugene Farber, and learned well from their teachings.

Without retrospective blood tests, it is impossible to PROVE that a person before 1900 had syphilis, but the combined wisdom of generations of doctors can give us reasonable certainty, and this Ms. Hayden has given us.

Some reviewer has asserted that Beethoven could not have had syphilis, because he wrote great music. (Perhaps logic and epistemology are no longer taught in our schools.)

I give thumbs up to this book for breaking new ground in an informative and thoroughly researched way.

Best on causes of death
This is a very medical, military, and philosophical book about the pox. Much of the text is concerned with what doctors knew at certain points between 1492, when a large number of men who traveled with Christopher Columbus (who died in 1506) started raging epidemics of various diseases on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and 1948, when Adolf Hitler's doctors died. The cause of death of everyone mentioned in the book is not included, but one of the doctors responsible for the information in the Military Intelligence Service Center Report, "Hitler as Seen by His Doctors," "Brandt was executed on 2 June 1948 at Landsberg prison for his role in Hitler's euthanasia program." (p. 290). The form of poetic justice involved in any consideration of the pox is similar to a poem of the early Greek general Archilochus, selection 184 in 7 GREEKS/ TRANSLATIONS BY GUY DAVENPORT, p. 55:

In the hospitality of war
We left them their dead
As a gift to remember us by.

In 1495, the French army of 18,000 horsemen and 20,000 foot soldiers for Charles VIII, king of France, took Naples, defended by Spanish troops and some women who came with them from Spain, but the people "expelled Charles within a week. . . . Poor Charles was the first of many monarchs to fall prey to the disease. Charles died of apoplexy three years later, at age twenty-eight, after hitting his head against the frame of a low door." (p. 13). Spanish "soldiers expelled the women, who were cheerfully accepted by the French soldiers--an early example of germ warfare." (p. 14).

Hitler's heartbeat, heard through a stethoscope, had an extra musical note due to aortic weakness. In 1875, a British army surgeon "found that about two-thirds of the records of fifty-three cases of rupturing aortic aneurysm had a previous history of syphilis." (p. 34). Beethoven, (pp. 71-88), Schubert (pp. 89-96), and Schumann (pp. 97-111), then Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) whose "agonized tone" could be traced "to his infection," (p. 314) get credit for setting the vibrations of their nerves to music.

Nietzsche, with a case that is well documented on pages 172-199 of this book, is the key philosopher for understanding the psychic link which bind the subjects of this book. Jaspers and Jung are mentioned a few times, but Hayden can look directly at his work for evidence that "He thought of a future time when his work would be understood and appreciated. In all these things we see a parallel with van Gogh during that same year. Pure creative inspiration, mental illness, or paretic disinhibition: whatever the combination, the result in each case was astonishing." (p. 199).

Many doctors knew what Nietzsche was suffering from, even if his mother and sister didn't know (p. 181) what he admitted when he was taken to "the nerve clinic of Dr. Wille, an expert on general paralysis of the insane," (p. 174) in Basel in January, 1889. Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was the rare author who told people, "I've got the Pox!" (pp. 142, 144). His story, "Bed Number 29" is summarized on page 145 of this book. The victim in the story "was infected by the invading Prussians, but she got her revenge by passing her disease on to as many soldiers as possible. . . . she boasts that her score of deaths is greater than his." Deborah Hayden has done a tremendous amount of correlation of the information relating to the years from 1492 to 1948, but the psychic roots of much that she found is all too common, even though spirochetes did not provide a basis for the modern understanding of syphilis until they were discovered in 1905.

Recently in Science magazine (17 July 1998) the complete genome sequence of Treponema pallidum, the syphilis spirochete, was revealed to have 1,138,006 coding pairs containing 1,041 predicted coding sequences (Hayden, p. 26) but we still don't know everything. "Existing diagnostic tests are less than optimal. Even after treatment with penicillin some patients harbor spirochetes in `treponemal sanctuaries' such as the eye and the lymph glands. Many of the details of its life cycle remain unanswered." (p. 27).

My favorite page 252, shows a young Hitler staring out of a picture in the top half of the page, then has, "In 1936 Hitler hired a syphilologist, Theo Morell, to be his private physician." By 1941, there is "a pattern of syphilis beginning with one of the most terrifying manifestations of late syphilis, disease of the heart." The main comedy of the book is the urban legend aspect, how many people relied on beliefs which had no scientific basis, which is not funny as it applies to modern HIV infections on page 45. In Hitler's case, I think the funniest anecdote is related by Putzi Hanfstaengl, "who became Hitler's foreign press secretary" (p. 254) though "He ended up in Washington writing psychological profiles of Hitler and the Nazi inner circle for his old friend from the Harvard Club, Franklin D. Roosevelt." (p. 255). The funny story was related by Putzi to Rudolph Binion "in the early 1970s" (p. 255) and elaborated in this book through page 256, when this book turns to "In Landsberg prison after the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler wrote thirteen pages in MEIN KAMPF about syphilis being the direst threat to the future of the race," based on the belief "that syphilis could be inherited for many generations." (p. 264). In the syphilis epidemic after World War I, even Hitler had to wonder, "Finally, however: who can know whether he is sick or healthy? Are there not numerous cases in which a patient apparently cured relapses and causes frightful mischief without himself expecting it at first?" (p. 264). Please remember, "a glassblower with an infectious mucous patch in his mouth who infected a coworker when he passed a glassblowing pipe." (pp. 182-183). This book is not entirely about sex.

An ok book, but a little dry
In this book, I really enjoyed the history of syphilis and how it was treated back in the day. That is where the two stars come in. However, towards the middle of the book I was getting sick of her trying to twist every little illness into a symptom of syphilis. Oh Shubert had the sniffles....MUST BE SYPHILIS. Lincoln was depressed.... MUST BE SYPHILIS. I am sorry to say but not everything was syphilis back then. Like Mary Lincoln for example, her husband was shot in the back of the head while he was sitting next to her.... I don't blame her for going mad! A lot of her points are overkilled, and don't make sense. These are one of those books that you can pick up in the middle and read a chapter and not miss anything. I think in every chapter she explains the symptoms and every detail of syphilis. I would recomend another book

A book on syphillis that reads like a detective story
Early in January, 1889, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche collapsed on the street in Turin (Torino), Italy. He was taken to his mother in Germany and placed in a mental institution. After a few months he was released to the care of his family, where he lived another eleven years as an invalid.   

After Nietzsche's death in 1900, Nietzsche's close friend, Franz Overbeck, divulged that the director of the hospital where Nietzsche had been taken swore him to secrecy and then told him that Nietzsche had syphilis.   

The consensus of contemporary scholars, including Deborah Hayden, in her study Pox: Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis, is that Nietzsche indeed suffered from syphilis, a disease often called the 'French disease" and the 'Great Imitator" because its symptoms mimic those of many other diseases.   

Deborah Hayden, who lives in Mill Valley, Calif., is an independent scholar and marketing executive. She has lectured widely on "Syphilis and Creativity," most recently at UCSF Medical School, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Bay Area History of Medicine Society.

Now, in Pox, Hayden has written a provocative and controversial work that reads much like a detective story.

"Pox began," writes Hayden, "with my curiosity about syphilis ... to learn more about Nietzsche's illness. But the project quickly expanded as I found one reference after another to other cases--all hidden, mostly disputed--in the higher reaches of culture and politics."   

Who, besides Nietzsche, are candidates for the dreaded pox? Hayden devotes chapters to Christopher Columbus, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Charles Baudelaire, Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln, Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, Vincent Van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), James Joyce, and Adolf Hitler.   

In a final "Pox Gallery," Hayden writes: "Suspected (or known) syphilitics include Idi Amin, Darwin, Donizette, Dostoevsky, Durer, Lenin, Meriwether Lewis, Mozart, Napoleon, Paginini, Edgar Allan Poe, Rabelais, Stalin, Tolstoi, and Woodrow Wilson."   

In tracking down the mysteries of pox, there often is no "smoking gun" to establish beyond doubt that a particular subject suffered from syphilis. However, in many of these cases Hayden presents enough circumstantial evidence to convince an impartial jury.   

Many readers will bristle to hear that Beethoven's magnificent Ninth Symphony, including the "Ode to Joy," was probably composed during a mystical euphoria brought on by tertiary syphilis.   

In a quantum universe, almost anything is possible. But one should bear in mind that possibilities do not automatically or necessarily translate into probabilities or actualities.   

The bottom line is that many of Hayden's speculations are fascinating, but they are just that: speculations that must be viewed skeptically.

Roy E. Perry of Nolensville is an amateur philosopher, Civil War buff, classical music lover, and chess enthusiast. He is an advertising copywriter at a Nashville Publishing House.

Syphilis.--(from Syphilus, hero of the poem Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus (Syphilis or the French disease) (1530) by Girolamo Fracastoro (1553), Italian poet, physician, and astronomer: a chronic contagious usually venereal and often congenital disease caused by a spirochete (Treponema pallidum) and if left untreated producing chancres, rashes, and systemic lesions in a clinical course with three stages continued over many years. Compare Primary Syphilis, Secondary Syphilis, and Tertiary Syphilis.--From Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition ... Read more

Book Description

Paul Farmer has battled AIDS in rural Haiti and deadly strains of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the slums of Peru. A physician-anthropologist with more than fifteen years in the field, Farmer writes from the front lines of the war against these modern plagues and shows why, even more than those of history, they target the poor. This "peculiarly modern inequality" that permeates AIDS, TB, malaria, and typhoid in the modern world, and that feeds emerging (or re-emerging) infectious diseases such as Ebola and cholera, is laid bare in Farmer's harrowing stories of sickness and suffering.

Challenging the accepted methodologies of epidemiology and international health, he points out that most current explanatory strategies, from "cost-effectiveness" to patient "noncompliance," inevitably lead to blaming the victims. In reality, larger forces, global as well as local, determine why some people are sick and others are shielded from risk. Yet this moving account is far from a hopeless inventory of insoluble problems. Farmer writes of what can be done in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds, by physicians determined to treat those in need. Infections and Inequalities weds meticulous scholarship with a passion for solutions-remedies for the plagues of the poor and the social maladies that have sustained them. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Paul Farmer-- the Cassandra Prophet
Anyone who has traveled to a third world country and viewed the slums and abhorrent conditions millions of people live in,
with no basic sanitation or clean drinking water, will not be surprised by Dr. Paul Farmer's findings regarding the emergence of deadly pathogens in these countries. He ties the spread of AIDS in third world countries to the sex trade,an economic necessity for many young women,men and children, and the easier transmittal of the disease due to untreated STDs. His ethnographic studies of HIV positive women in Haiti, who are more likely to be partners of soldiers or truck drivers, two of the few paying professions in that country, provides another economic link to this disease. Most disturbing are his findings regarding multi-drug resistant tuberculosis,which is often a presenter disease of HIV. An estimated one third of tuberculosis cases in the US occur in someone born outside of the country, and Farmer feels that one third of the world's population harbors the tubercle bacillus, which easily emerges when someone's body is broken down by poor nutrition, other illness or a compromised immune system.
The vignettes of patients he has treated and saved, or was too late to save, place an unforgettable face on these diseases. He attacks arguments against treating third world tuberculosis and HIV as morally unsound and compares the costs of military campaigns against the pittance spent on
drugs that could save millions of lives. Another disturbing book- a worthy winner of the Magaret Mead Award.

Shining a Light
Dr. Farmer sums up what you can hear in his lectures (he is an amazing speaker), read in journals, and hear in his interviews: The "modern day plagues" result directly from Structural Violence. I read this book for my culture and health class and could not put it down. He writes with an eloquence unheard of in most anthropologists while at the same time with the passion of a deeply concerned physician. Although in some points the book can get repetitive (as case studies overlap) it is a spectacular, enlightening read that I would recommend to anyone, particularly potential (and current) medical anthropologists.

Complex causality: why people are really at risk for disease
Finally Dr. Farmer couples his lucid historical, political and economic analyses of the conditions that put the poor at risk for bad health outcomes, with a plainly indignant calling out of healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations to make honest efforts to understand and remedy conditions which would never be tolerated among the well off in Western nations. In his goundbreaking, earlier books, "AIDS and Accusations," and "The Uses of Haiti," Dr. Farmer matter of factly discusses the global and local structural conditions and misrepresentations which led to the spread of disease and persistent, dismal health conditions in Haiti. In "Infections and Inequality," Dr. Farmer adds moral overtones to incisive, sociopolitical analysis and his characteristic accounts of individuals suffering from disease. The book consequently provides a powerful reflection from a man who has worked in some of the world's poorest regions on what the benefits of medical technology mean for people who have not traditionally had access to them. A powerful, informative read that clearly reflects the years of experience of a physician who has wrestled with the global responsibility of caring for the those who are worst off. An obligatory read for anyone even thinking of working for the impoverished of the world. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excelent
Great book. Well organized, compact, easy to read. If you've got no time to lose, this is your book! I read it and learnt it in one day!

When you can't afford time?
When you are short of time and still want to score good in step 1 immunology, then go for this book. I bet you won't repent. ... Read more

Book Description

Empathic, responsible, readable, and extremely useful information for families and teachers about ADHD.The book focuses on over-reactions, impulse control, easy frustration, time management, and organizational problems as key aspects of ADHD.Dr. Kutscher writes with a clear and compelling style in an easy to follow format. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Thank you, Dr. Kutscher!!
An excellent, concise, no-nonsense, inspirational book. Superb as both resource and guide to help us do just what we want to: LIVE RIGHT NOW! Thank you very much indeed, Dr. Kutscher.

ADHD Book: Living Right Now!
I only wish this book was available for me when my daughter was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome back when she was 12. By the time ADHD was diagnosed she was 19 and we had gone through many years of disruption and blame. I will recommend this book to family and friends.

Carol Goldberg Maeder, Mother

Excellent Resource
This book is easy to understand for the layman or professional. It addresses everyday problems and how to deal with them by a doctor who is not only intelligent, but compassionate.

A great resource!
This is an excellent book on ADHD. It is informative, comprehensive and easy to understand. A must have for those with ADHD and their families! Teachers will also find this book a valuable resource. It provides many different types of therapies for parents and teachers to use when dealing with someone who has ADHD. Dr. Martin Kutscher gives those without ADHD insight into the world of those living with ADHD.

essential for all who work with kids
this book on ADHD is an invaluable resource for parents, teachers, clergy, administrators, camp directors, scouting leaders...all who work with kids and need coping strategies to help the kids (and themselves) succeed. ... Read more

Book Description

Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD. A Brandon/Hill Medical List first-purchase and minimal-core selection. Comprehensive, major reference to patient care and preventive medicine. For primary care physicians and residents, internists, and general and family practitioners in the office setting. Previous edition: c1995. DNLM: Ambulatory Care. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Supervising Physician says this is the one to have!
The SP I'm with told me this has an answer for almost all my questions. He refers to it frequently himself-- a very good reference!

A one stop shop for medical information.
You will not find a more complete and comprehensive medical resource. This book tackles every disease I can think of. ... Read more

Book Description

In the winter of 1664-65, a bitter cold descended on London in the days before Christmas. Above the city, an unusually bright comet traced an arc in the sky, exciting much comment and portending "horrible windes and tempests." And in the remote, squalid precinct of St. Giles-in-the-Fields outside the city wall, Goodwoman Phillips was pronounced dead of the plague. Her house was locked up and the phrase "Lord Have Mercy On Us" was painted on the door in red. By the following Christmas, the pathogen that had felled Goodwoman Phillips would go on to kill nearly 100,000 people living in and around London—almost a third of those who did not flee. This epidemic had a devastating effect on the city's economy and social fabric, as well as on those who lived through it. Yet somehow the city continued to function and the activities of daily life went on.

In The Great Plague, historian A. Lloyd Moote and microbiologist Dorothy C. Moote provide an engrossing and deeply informed account of this cataclysmic plague year. At once sweeping and intimate, their narrative takes readers from the palaces of the city's wealthiest citizens to the slums that housed the vast majority of London's inhabitants to the surrounding countryside with those who fled. The Mootes reveal that, even at the height of the plague, the city did not descend into chaos. Doctors, apothecaries, surgeons, and clergy remained in the city to care for the sick; parish and city officials confronted the crisis with all the legal tools at their disposal; and commerce continued even as businesses shut down.

To portray life and death in and around London, the authors focus on the experiences of nine individuals—among them an apothecary serving a poor suburb, the rector of the city's wealthiest parish, a successful silk merchant who was also a city alderman, a country gentleman, and famous diarist Samuel Pepys. Through letters and diaries, the Mootes offer fresh interpretations of key issues in the history of the Great Plague: how different communities understood and experienced the disease; how medical, religious, and government bodies reacted; how well the social order held together; the economic and moral dilemmas people faced when debating whether to flee the city; and the nature of the material, social, and spiritual resources sustaining those who remained.

Underscoring the human dimensions of the epidemic, Lloyd and Dorothy Moote dramatically recast the history of the Great Plague and offer a masterful portrait of a city and its inhabitants besieged by—and defiantly resisting—unimaginable horror. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Human Side of Plague
The word "plague" is one of the most dreaded in Europe. For over a thousand years, Europe was the victim of a series of epidemics which decimated the population. One of the last of these epidemics was the Great Plague of London in 1665 that killed probably a third of the population and left few families untouched.

Plagues are a huge subject. Even today there is little agreement between medical experts as to which pandemics were caused by Yersinia pestis (the bacillus almost certainly responsible for the 1665 plague); what was the contagiousness and morbidity of the various strains of plague; and what were all the ways that it could be transmitted to humans. Then there are all the complicated social questions to sort out: What was cause, what effect, and what coincidence? All this has to be carefully determined from the artifacts left by a largely superstitious and semi-literate society in desperate times.

The husband and wife team of Lloyd and Dorothy Moote have pooled their skills in European history and medical research to examine the human side of the Great Plague. By going back to original source materials, they have provided an intimate picture of life during the plague year that is as free as possible from the myths and misunderstandings that have grown up around the subject. Most valuably, their interpretation of events is sensitive to the knowledge and beliefs of the people at the time. This was an afflicted community only three hundred years after the Black Death - one of the world's greatest horrors - and two hundred years before scientists such as Filippo Pacini, Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch would connect disease to an "organic, living substance of a parasitic nature."

Other books on the plague have tended to concentrate on the epidemiological and political aspects of pandemics. "The Great Plague: The Story of London's Most Deadly Year" is a very welcome addition to the literature because of its careful and sympathetic treatment of the human side of plague. ... Read more