American Plagues Lessons from Our Battles with Disease

Readable and engaging, this book conveys readers through many of the most important epidemics in U. S. history. Stephen Gehlbach unveils terrifying scenarios in which unknown diseases raged across the countryside, claiming lives as they went. Their names yellow fever, smallpox, polio evoke fear even today. This intriguing collection of narratives also introduces some well-known characters who played pivotal and often controversial roles in the outbreaks and who were first to identify and begin the conquest of these dreaded plagues.A fascinating account both for the general reader as well as for public health, medical, nursing, and allied health students,American Plaguesteaches important public health concepts. It focuses on the principles underlying the study of disease in human groups and the research techniques developed to control its spread. This masterful account of the course of American diseases is a superb union of scholarship and storytelling. In our own chilling time of fearful threats to public health from SARS to AIDS to all the dire ills that bioterrorism could bringAmerican Plaguesbelongs at the top of your reading list.Gehlbach, Stephen H. is the author of 'American Plagues Lessons from Our Battles with Disease', published 2004 under ISBN 9780071437905 and ISBN 0071437908.