The Deadliest Diseases Then and Now (The Deadliest #1, Scholastic Focus)

The Deadliest Diseases Then and Now (The Deadliest #1, Scholastic Focus) PDF Author: Deborah Hopkinson
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 1338360213
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
Perfect for young readers of I Survived and the Who Was series! Packed with graphics, photos, and facts for curious minds, this is a gripping look at pandemics through the ages. The deadly outbreak of plague known as the Great Mortality, which struck Europe in the mid 1300s and raged for four centuries, wiped out more than 25 million people in the course of just two years. With its vicious onslaught, life changed for millions of people almost instantaneously. Deadly pandemics have always been a part of life, from the Great Mortality of the Middle Ages, to the Spanish Influenza outbreak of 1918, to the eruption of COVID-19 in our own century. Many of these diseases might have seemed like things to read about in history books -- until the unthinkable happened, and our own lives were turned upside down by the emergence of the novel coronavirus. As we learn more about COVID-19, we may be curious about pandemics of the past. Knowing how humans fought diseases long ago may help us face those of today. In this fast-paced, wide-ranging story filled with facts, pictures, and diagrams about diseases -- from plague to smallpox to polio to flu -- critically acclaimed Sibert Honor author Deborah Hopkinson brings voices from the past to life in this exploration of the deadliest diseases of then and now. Filled with more than 50 period photographs and illustrations, charts, facts, and pull-out boxes for eager nonfiction readers.

The Deadliest Diseases Then and Now (The Deadliest #1, Scholastic Focus)

The Deadliest Diseases Then and Now (The Deadliest #1, Scholastic Focus) PDF Author: Deborah Hopkinson
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 1338360213
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Get Book Here

Book Description
Perfect for young readers of I Survived and the Who Was series! Packed with graphics, photos, and facts for curious minds, this is a gripping look at pandemics through the ages. The deadly outbreak of plague known as the Great Mortality, which struck Europe in the mid 1300s and raged for four centuries, wiped out more than 25 million people in the course of just two years. With its vicious onslaught, life changed for millions of people almost instantaneously. Deadly pandemics have always been a part of life, from the Great Mortality of the Middle Ages, to the Spanish Influenza outbreak of 1918, to the eruption of COVID-19 in our own century. Many of these diseases might have seemed like things to read about in history books -- until the unthinkable happened, and our own lives were turned upside down by the emergence of the novel coronavirus. As we learn more about COVID-19, we may be curious about pandemics of the past. Knowing how humans fought diseases long ago may help us face those of today. In this fast-paced, wide-ranging story filled with facts, pictures, and diagrams about diseases -- from plague to smallpox to polio to flu -- critically acclaimed Sibert Honor author Deborah Hopkinson brings voices from the past to life in this exploration of the deadliest diseases of then and now. Filled with more than 50 period photographs and illustrations, charts, facts, and pull-out boxes for eager nonfiction readers.

Phantom Plague

Phantom Plague PDF Author: Vidya Krishna
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
ISBN: 9354925758
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
The definitive social history of tuberculosis, from its origins as a haunting mystery to its modern reemergence that now threatens populations around the world. It killed novelist George Orwell, Eleanor Roosevelt, and millions of others-rich and poor. Desmond Tutu, Amitabh Bachchan, and Nelson Mandela survived it, just. For centuries, tuberculosis has ravaged cities and plagued the human body. In Phantom Plague, Vidya Krishnan, traces the history of tuberculosis from the slums of 19th-century New York to modern Mumbai. In a narrative spanning century, Krishnan shows how superstition and folk-remedies, made way for scientific understanding of TB, such that it was controlled and cured in the West. The cure was never available to black and brown nations. And the tuberculosis bacillus showed a remarkable ability to adapt-so that at the very moment it could have been extinguished as a threat to humanity, it found a way back, aided by authoritarian government, toxic kindness of philanthropists, science denialism and medical apartheid. Krishnan's original reporting paints a granular portrait of the post-antibiotic era as a new, aggressive, drug resistant strain of TB takes over. Phantom Plague is an urgent, riveting and fascinating narrative that deftly exposes the weakest links in our battle against this ancient foe.

Smallpox: The Death of a Disease

Smallpox: The Death of a Disease PDF Author: D. A. Henderson, M.D.
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 161592230X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
For more than 3000 years, hundreds of millions of people have died or been left permanently scarred or blind by the relentless, incurable disease called smallpox. In 1967, Dr. D.A. Henderson became director of a worldwide campaign to eliminate this disease from the face of the earth. This spellbinding book is Dr. Henderson’s personal story of how he led the World Health Organization’s campaign to eradicate smallpox—the only disease in history to have been deliberately eliminated. Some have called this feat "the greatest scientific and humanitarian achievement of the past century." In a lively, engrossing narrative, Dr. Henderson makes it clear that the gargantuan international effort involved more than straightforward mass vaccination. He and his staff had to cope with civil wars, floods, impassable roads, and refugees as well as formidable bureaucratic and cultural obstacles, shortages of local health personnel and meager budgets. Countries across the world joined in the effort; the United States and the Soviet Union worked together through the darkest cold war days; and professionals from more than 70 nations served as WHO field staff. On October 26, 1976, the last case of smallpox occurred. The disease that annually had killed two million people or more had been vanquished–and in just over ten years. The story did not end there. Dr. Henderson recounts in vivid detail the continuing struggle over whether to destroy the remaining virus in the two laboratories still that held it. Then came the startling discovery that the Soviet Union had been experimenting with smallpox virus as a biological weapon and producing it in large quantities. The threat of its possible use by a rogue nation or a terrorist has had to be taken seriously and Dr. Henderson has been a central figure in plans for coping with it. New methods for mass smallpox vaccination were so successful that he sought to expand the program of smallpox immunization to include polio, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, and tetanus vaccines. That program now reaches more than four out of five children in the world and is eradicating poliomyelitis. This unique book is to be treasured—a personal and true story that proves that through cooperation and perseverance the most daunting of obstacles can be overcome.

Plagues, Pox, and Pestilence

Plagues, Pox, and Pestilence PDF Author: Richard Platt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780753431689
Category : Animals as carriers of disease
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
Tells the history of diseases and epidemics and presents some information on efforts to fight them.

The Demon in the Freezer

The Demon in the Freezer PDF Author: Richard Preston
Publisher: Fawcett
ISBN: 0345466632
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
“The bard of biological weapons captures the drama of the front lines.”—Richard Danzig, former secretary of the navy The first major bioterror event in the United States-the anthrax attacks in October 2001-was a clarion call for scientists who work with “hot” agents to find ways of protecting civilian populations against biological weapons. In The Demon in the Freezer, his first nonfiction book since The Hot Zone, a #1 New York Times bestseller, Richard Preston takes us into the heart of Usamriid, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, once the headquarters of the U.S. biological weapons program and now the epicenter of national biodefense. Peter Jahrling, the top scientist at Usamriid, a wry virologist who cut his teeth on Ebola, one of the world’s most lethal emerging viruses, has ORCON security clearance that gives him access to top secret information on bioweapons. His most urgent priority is to develop a drug that will take on smallpox-and win. Eradicated from the planet in 1979 in one of the great triumphs of modern science, the smallpox virus now resides, officially, in only two high-security freezers-at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and in Siberia, at a Russian virology institute called Vector. But the demon in the freezer has been set loose. It is almost certain that illegal stocks are in the possession of hostile states, including Iraq and North Korea. Jahrling is haunted by the thought that biologists in secret labs are using genetic engineering to create a new superpox virus, a smallpox resistant to all vaccines. Usamriid went into a state of Delta Alert on September 11 and activated its emergency response teams when the first anthrax letters were opened in New York and Washington, D.C. Preston reports, in unprecedented detail, on the government’ s response to the attacks and takes us into the ongoing FBI investigation. His story is based on interviews with top-level FBI agents and with Dr. Steven Hatfill. Jahrling is leading a team of scientists doing controversial experiments with live smallpox virus at CDC. Preston takes us into the lab where Jahrling is reawakening smallpox and explains, with cool and devastating precision, what may be at stake if his last bold experiment fails.

Vaccinated

Vaccinated PDF Author: Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0063251760
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
"Medical writing at its finest."—David Oshinsky, author of Polio and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History Respected physician Paul Offit tells a fascinating story of modern medicine and pays tribute to one of the greatest lifesaving breakthroughs—vaccinations—and the medical hero responsible for developing nine of the big fourteen vaccines which have saved billions of lives worldwide. This edition includes a new foreword by the author. Maurice Hilleman’s mother died a day after he was born and his twin sister was stillborn. Believing that he had escaped an appointment with death, he made it his life’s work to see that others could do the same. The fruits of his labors were nine vaccines that practically every child receives, everyday miracles of modern medicine that have eradicated some of the most common—and devastating—diseases, including mumps and rubella. Offit, a vaccine researcher himself who co-invented the rotavirus vaccine, befriended Hilleman and, during the great man’s final months, interviewed him extensively about his life and career. Those conversations are the heart of Vaccinated. In telling Hilleman’s story, Offit takes us around the globe and across time, from the days of Louis Pasteur, to today, when a childhood vaccine can protect women from cervical cancer and stop a deadly pandemic like Covid-19. Yet these preventative treatments have come under increasing attack from both the left and right, and the anti-vaxxer movement that began with false reports over autism is growing at an alarming rate, threatening society’s well-being, and especially those whose conditions prevent them from being vaccinated. Offit makes an eloquent and compelling case for Hilleman’s importance, arguing that his name should be as well-known as Jonas Salk. Vaccinated reminds us of the value of vaccines and the power of science to save lives and protect our well-being.

The Lassa Ward

The Lassa Ward PDF Author: Dr. Ross Donaldson
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1429987073
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Ross Donaldson is one of just a few who have ventured into dark territory of a country ravaged by war to study one of the world's most deadly diseases. As an untried medical student studying the intersection of global health and communicable disease, Donaldson soon found himself in dangerous Sierra Leone, on the border of war-struck Liberia, where he struggled to control the spread of Lassa Fever. The words, "you know Lassa can kill you, don't you?" haunted him each day. With the country in complete upheaval and working conditions suffering, he is forced to make life-and-death decisions alone as a never-ending onslaught of contagious patients flood the hospital. Soon however, he is not only fighting for others but himself when he becomes afflicted with a life threatening disease. The Lassa Ward is more than just an adventure story about the making of a physician; it is a portrait of the Sierra Leone people and the human struggle of those risking their daily comforts and lives to aid them.

The Deadliest Hurricanes Then and Now (The Deadliest #2, Scholastic Focus)

The Deadliest Hurricanes Then and Now (The Deadliest #2, Scholastic Focus) PDF Author: Deborah Hopkinson
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 1338360183
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
Perfect for fans of I Survived and the Who Was series! Packed with graphics, photos, and facts for curious minds, this is a gripping look at America's deadliest hurricane. As a hurricane gathered in the Caribbean, blue skies covered Galveston, Texas. Scientists knew a storm was coming. But none of them were able to prepare Galveston for the force of the hurricane that hit on September 8, 1900. The water from the storm surge pulled houses off their foundations, and the winds toppled telephone poles and trees like toothpicks. And amid the chaos, Galveston's residents did all they could to rescue one another. From the meteorologists tracking the storm, to the ordinary people who displayed extraordinary bravery... from the inequitable effects of the disaster, to the science of hurricanes and weather: Acclaimed Sibert Honor author Deborah Hopkinson brings voices from history to life in this fast-paced, wide-ranging narrative of the deadliest hurricane in American history. Filled with more than 50 period photographs and illustrations, charts, facts, and pull-out boxes for eager nonfiction readers.

The World's Worst Problems

The World's Worst Problems PDF Author: Walter Dodds
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030304108
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
This book addresses the worst problems currently facing humanity and those that may pose future threats. The problems are explained and approached through a scientific lens, and categorized based on data involving global mortality, vulnerability, and threat level. The book presents indices of problem severity to compare relative intensity of current and potential crises. The approach avoids emotional argument using mainly empirical evidence to support the classification of relative problem severity. The author discusses multiple global problems and ranks them. He also explores specific solutions to each problem, links problems to human behavior from a social science perspective, considers international cooperation, and finally pathways to solutions. The book discusses confirmation bias and why this necessitates a scientific approach to tackle problems. The moral assumption that each person has the same rights to life and minimal suffering, and that the natural world has a right to exist, forms the basis of ranking problems based on death, suffering, and harm to the natural world. A focus is given to potential disasters such as asteroid collisions and super-volcanic eruptions, which are then presented in chapters that address specific contemporary global issues including disease, hunger, nuclear weapons and climate change. Furthermore the author then ranks the problems based on an index of problem severity, considering what other people think the worst problems are. The relative economic costs to solve each of these problems, individual behavior in the face of these problems, how people could work together internationally to combat them, and a general pathway toward solutions form the basis of the final chapters. This work will appeal to a wide range of readers, students considering how they can help the world, and scientists and policy makers interested in global problem solving./div

Deadliest Enemy

Deadliest Enemy PDF Author: Michael T. Osterholm
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780316343756
Category : AIDS (Disease)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Infectious disease has the terrifying power to disrupt everyday life on a global scale, overwhelming public and private resources and bringing trade and transportation to a halt. In today's world, it's easier than ever to move people, animals, and materials around the planet, but the same advances that make modern infrastructure so efficient have made epidemics and even pandemics nearly inevitable. So what can -- and must -- we do in order to protect ourselves? Drawing on the latest medical science, case studies, and policy research, Deadliest enemy explores the resources and programs we need to develop if we are to keep ourselves safe from infectious disease.--