By: Laurie Garrett
Mayhem and death shouldn't be so interesting. Combining elements of medical detective stories with nearly apocalyptic warnings about emerging diseases and the failures of our public health systems - especially, but not only, in the third world - this book is extremely disturbing. It's also rather old, given the topic, having been published in 1994. If it were more up to date, I probably would have given it a higher ranking. Even given its age, the book has fascinating accounts of the outbreak of several recently emerged diseases, including Ebola, Lassa fever, Legionnaire's disease, AIDS, and others. If you're interested in public health issues or the topic of emerging diseases, I'd highly recommend The Coming Plague, though it should be balanced by more recent publications. (Non-fiction) 07/29/09
