Showing titles in Contagious Diseases

For centuries mankind has waged war against the infections that, left untreated, would have the power to wipe out communities, or even entire populations. Yet for all our advanced scientific knowledge, only one human disease - smallpox - has ever been eradicated globally. In recent years, outbreaks of Ebola and Zika have provided vivid examples of how difficult it is to contain an infection once it strikes and the panic that a rapidly spreading epidemic can ignite.

After the unprecedented events of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may be hard to imagine a time not so long ago when deadly diseases were a routine part of life. It is harder still to fathom that the best medical thinking at that time blamed these diseases on noxious miasmas, bodily humors, and divine dyspepsia. This all began to change on a day in April 1676, when a little-known Dutch merchant described bacteria for the first time. Ending Epidemics explains how we came to understand and prevent many of our worst infectious diseases—and double average life expectancy.

The way our bodies interact with infectious disease is complicated—both a function of the “germ” and the “terrain”—the virus and the host. In The Virus and the Host, Dr. Chlebowski succinctly describes emerging science on the virome and how toxic exposure, chronic inflammation, infections, and chronic diseases interact and predispose us to poor outcomes from acute viral infection. As we move forward from the tragedy of COVID-19, it is essential that we come together to learn from our mistakes and work hard—and together—to prevent a similar crisis in the future.

The hunt for the origin of the AIDS virus began over 20 years ago. It was a journey that went around the world and involved painstaking research to unravel how, when, and where the virus first infected humans. Dorothy H. Crawford traces the story back to the remote rain forests of Africa - home to the primates that carry the ancestral virus - and reveals how HIV-1 first jumped from chimpanzees to humans in rural southeast Cameroon. Examining how this happened, and how it then travelled back to Colonial west central Africa where it eventually exploded as a pandemic, she asks why and how it was able to spread so widely.

Es grassiert flächendeckend Angst vor COVID-19, vor schwerer Erkrankung und Tod. Dabei ist wissenschaftlich längst erwiesen, dass nicht das Virus selbst, sondern eine "allergische" Reaktion unseres Immunsystems tötet. Erst diese immunologische Fehlfunktion zerstört die Lungen und verursacht tödliches Organversagen. Wie es dazu kommt, dass aus einer natürlichen Abwehrreaktion eine derart unnatürliche Selbstzerstörung wird, ist der Wissenschaft ebenfalls bekannt - aber nicht der breiten Öffentlichkeit.

Unlike natural disasters, whose destruction is concentrated in a limited area over a period of days, and illnesses, which have devastating effects but are limited to individuals and their families, 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 grinding halt.

Long Covid symptoms can often leave people feeling incredibly fatigued and stressed, and conventional yoga practice may not be suitable for their needs or ability. This practice-based guide addresses the symptoms of Long Covid and fatigue directly and offers adapted techniques to help yoga...

This global pandemic has disrupted life as we know it, in ways we could never have imagined. Even with the gradual easing of restrictions, many material challenges remain. The time has come to consider what happens next. If this experience has made you realise you want to prioritise different...

En El mapa fantasma se cuenta la historia de la aterradora epidemia de cólera que envolvió Londres en 1854 y sus dos héroes poco probables: el anestesista doctor John Snow y el afable clérigo, el reverendo Henry Whitehead, quienes derrotaron la enfermedad mediante una combinación de...

In this "meticulously researched" account (New York Times Book Review), a Pulitzer Prize-winning author examines the dangers of a failing public health system unequipped to handle large-scale global risks like a coronavirus pandemic. 

In this pragmatic, insightful audiobook, Dr. Don Colbert shows you how to live virtually free from the distressing symptoms of colds, flu, and sinus infections. By employing the spiritual insight, powerful faith, godly wisdom and sound medical advice in this book, you don't have to suffer from colds, flu and sinus infections any longer.

The bumper-sticker directive to ‘follow the science’ was actually an evasion of responsibility. It let people off the hook for their bad decisions in a crisis. Was New York Governor Cuomo’s executive order sending COVID-hospitalized patients back to nursing homes to infect other vulnerable nursing home patients ‘following the science’? Relative to the total nursing home population, Governor Cuomo contributed to a larger percentage of nursing-home deaths - especially when compared to the states without such a policy.

In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, Paul Slack takes a global approach to explore the historical and social impact of plague over the centuries, looking at the ways in which it has been interpreted and the powerful images it has left behind in art and literature.  

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the shocking mortality figures obscured the fact that death is not the only adverse outcome associated with the virus. Today, as many as 30 to 50 percent of COVID-19 survivors still experience symptoms long after their acute illness has passed, with problems especially prominent in the areas of cognitive and mental health. In Clearing the Fog, neuropsychologist Dr. James C. Jackson offers people suffering from Long COVIDand their families a roadmap to help them manage their 'new normal'.

The problem with pandemics is that people want to forget them. One year, a million Americans are killed by a deadly new virus. The next, everyone is back rooting for the Georgia Bulldogs. The impulse to move on from this particular kind of tragedy is more than a little odd.

In the 200 years since we discovered that microbes cause infectious diseases, we've battled to keep them at bay. But a recent explosion of scientific knowledge has led to undeniable evidence that early exposure to these organisms is beneficial to our children's well-being. Our current emphasis on hyper-cleanliness is taking a toll on our children's lifelong health. This engaging and important book explains how the millions of microbes that live in our bodies influence childhood development.

Lock downs and masks had no significant impact on the spread of COVID-19, and the vaccine didn't stop transmission. The authorities and the media pushed the false "everyone's at risk" narrative, and instead of focusing protection on the elderly and immuno-compromised people who were at genuine risk, they shut down the world. Trillions of dollars were wasted, economies crashed, kids' education was stunted, and civil liberties were set back a generation. This is the incredible story of how it happened.

Smallpox, the only infectious disease to have been eradicated, was one of the most terrifying of human scourges. It covered the skin with hideous, painful boils, killed a third of its victims, and left the survivors disfigured for life. In this riveting, often terrifying look at the history of smallpox, Jonathan B. Tucker tells the story of this deadly disease, the heroic efforts to eradicate it worldwide, and the looming dangers it still poses today.

History books abound with accounts of large scale destruction wrought by infectious disease. As recently as 1918, a pandemic of influenza claimed over 50 million lives worldwide. The advent of drugs and vaccines led to an era of hope when we thought our battles with infectious disease were won, but our optimism has been eroded by the recognition that many pathogens have the capacity to transform themselves and escape our efforts to eradicate them. Are we now facing an inevitable repeat of a calamity such as the 1918 influenza pandemic or the Black Death?

Navigating the Complexities of Stroke provides a practical guide for the lay public and medical professionals. Dr. Louis R. Caplan, one of the world's leading experts, guides listeners through the subject in a straightforward and accessible manner. He turns to the mechanics of the stroke itself, discussing the complexities of the two major kinds and the resulting damage.