Written in the authors’ lively and accessible style, chapters include page-turning medical stories about a particular disease or virus-smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio, HIV-that combine “Patient Zero” narratives, or the human stories behind outbreaks, with historical examinations of missteps, milestones, scientific theories, and more.

Fine Books Magazine: Some Very Fine Books Writersįrom the masters of storytelling-meets-science and co-authors of Quackery, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks-how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us.The New York Times “Publishers Snap Up Corona Books, From Case Studies to Plague Poetry”.The Lincoln Journal Star reviews Patient Zero.A Nebraska doctor was writing a history of nightmare pandemics.Engadget: Hitting the Books: An Ode to the Joy of Antibiotics.Wall Street Journal: Holiday Gift Books.Learning From the World’s Worst Diseases.Why We Care About Finding Patient Zero on.Winner of the 2022 Nebraska Book Award in the category of Nonfiction Popular History.Readers will be swept away by this energetic and enlightening survey.

Kang and Pedersen’s conversational tone keeps things moving, and they’re magnificent at reminding readers that, although pathogens will probably continue to “consume ravenously, kill what’s in their way, and adapt,” medicine has come a long way from recommending blood baths, drinking urine, and consuming mercury as treatments. Despite the wide-ranging varieties of illnesses, the authors show, some constants appear throughout history, such as the politicization of pandemics and “our voracious human appetites” that push people to disrupt animal habitats (60% of the diseases that affect humans are caused by germs that spread between animals and people).

for nearly a decade before its recognition), and ergotism (a fungus found in bread made with contaminated flour, which made the sick smell like dead mice). Those covered include rabies (so ancient it’s mentioned in the ancient Middle Eastern Laws of Eshnunna), HIV (which likely circulated in the U.S. Physician Kang and historian Pedersen team up again (after Quackery) with a thorough and morbidly funny study of some of the world’s deadliest diseases.

Patient zero lydia kang