Research Catalog

Title

Emerging infectious diseases and society / Peter Washer.

Author

Washer, Peter.

Publication

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 191 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

"À meticulous dissection of the threats from infectious disease, and our responses to them. The book offers an unusually clear account of how perception of biological reality is shaped by society and culture. Essential reading for plotting the territory between panic and pandemic ---Jon Turney, author of The Rough Guide to the Future" "Èmerging Infectious Diseases and Society is an engrossing account of the historical underpinnings of the idea of emering disease, and a trenchant dissection of the ways in which it is put to social and political use today. Washer writes in clear, even-handed language that makes the book rewarding reading for the public and professionals alike. He masterfully, translates complicated scientific debates to reveal the deeply embedded fears, myths and misconceptions that characterize contemporary thinking about infectious disease. Along the way he deftly unmasks what they tell us about contemporary global social and political relationships.' ---Professor D. Ann Herring, McMaster University, Canada" "T̀his informative, crystal clear book charts the rise of the Emerging Infectious Diseases discipline in the context of political, social and cultural forces. It contains a particularly wonderful and original chapter on the role played by the dirt, germs and the immune system in conceptualisations of Emerging Infectious Diseases.' ---Dr Helene Joffe, Division of Psychology, UCL, UK" "By the 1970s, medicine appeared to have conquered infectious diseases. A century before, newly discovered germ theory had laid the foundations for advances in vaccines and antibiotics, but deaths and illness from infectious diseases had been declining in the developed world even befoe this g̀olden age' of medicine. Infectious diseases were perceived as archaic, and future health threats seemed to come from so-called d̀iseases of civilisation', such as heart disease and cancer." "The appearance of AIDS in the early 1980s radically reversed that trend, and since then over thirty new infectious diseases have been classified including m̀ad cow disease' and antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Furthermore, old threats, such as turberclosis, have re-emerged as they have become immune to established treatments." "This fascinating study charts the rise of new infectious diseases and examines the cultural context and anxieties that surround their emergence, revealing the under-lying social and political concerns that determine our response to disease in the twenty-first century."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

• Communicable Diseases, Emerging
• Emerging infectious diseases > Popular works

Genre/Form

Popular Work.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

1. Factors in the Emergence of Infectious Diseases -- 2. The Conquest of Infectious Disease -- 3. AIDS and the End of the Golden Age of Medicine -- 4. Modernity, Globalisation and Emerging Infectious Diseases -- 5. Mad Cows, Modern Plagues and Superbugs -- 6. Dirt, Germs and the Immune System -- 7. The Bioterroism Myth -- 8. EID, Security and Global Poverty.

ISBN

• 9780230221321 (hardback)
• 0230221327 (hardback)

LCCN

• 2010002717
• 40018073100

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries