Viruses, plagues, and history

by Michael B. A. Oldstone

"Nearly 300 million people were killed by smallpox over the course of the twentieth century. During the years 1918 and 1919, a deadly variant of the influenza strain claimed over 20 million lives. And today we face new viral threats: mad cow disease, the Hantavirus, and of course, AIDS. As Michael Oldstone illustrates here, the story of viruses and the story of humanity have overlapped since the dawn of history; the first cities formed not only the cradle of civilization, but spawning grounds for the earliest viral epidemics. In clear and engrossing prose, he explains the scientific principles of viruses and epidemics while also relating the past and present history of the major viral threats to human health. Now featuring an "Afternotes" section written especially for this paperback edition, Viruses, Plagues, and History gives us the full, fascinating panorama of our long-standing conflict with unseen viral enemies -- from our successes, as with the eradication of poliomyelitis in the