A History of Infectious Diseases and the Microbial World

by Lois N. Magner

Overview

A History of Infectious Diseases and the Microbial World offers readers answers to specific questions, as well as the challenge of a narrative that will stimulate their curiosity and encourage them to ask questions about the theory, practice, and assumptions of modern medicine.

This work provides a broad introductory overview of the history of major infectious diseases, including their impact on different populations, the recognition of specific causative agents, and the development of methods used to prevent, control, and treat them. By stressing the major themes in the history of disease, this book allows readers to relate modern concerns to historical materials. It places modern developments concerning infectious diseases within their historical context, illuminating the relationships between patterns of disease and social, cultural, political, and economic factors.

Upon completing this volume, readers will be prepared to answer contemporary questions concerning the threat of newly-emerging infectious diseases, potentially devastating pandemics, and the threat of bioterrorism. One will gain a precise understanding of the nature of different kinds of pathogens, the unique mechanisms behind disease transmission, and the means used to control, prevent, and treat infectious disease. Although only a few of these deadly illnesses can be addressed in detail, those that are discussed include: malaria, leprosy, bubonic plague, tuberculosis, syphilis, diphtheria, cholera, yellow fever, poliomyelitis, HIV/AIDS, and influenza.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275995041
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/2009
Series:	Healing Society: Disease, Medicine, and History
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Lois N. Magner is Professor Emerita at Purdue University.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Welcome to the Microbial World
Abbreviations
Chapter One: Disease and History: An Overview
Chapter Two: Miasma, Contagion, and the Germ Theory of Disease
Chapter Three: Microbiology and the Foundations of Modern Surgery and Therapy
Chapter Four: Viruses and Viral Diseases
Chapter Five: Sanitary Reform, Public Health, and the Battle against Filth and Epidemic Diseases
Chapter Six: The Art and Science of Preventing and Controlling Epidemic Diseases
Chapter Seven: Emerging Infectious Diseases
Chapter Eight: Biological Weapons and Bioterrorism
Chapter Nine: Infectious Agents and New Concepts: From Chronic Diseases to the Microbiome
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

In this excellent and timely volume in the series 'Healing Society: Disease, Medicine, and History,' Magner (emer., Purdue) illuminatingly reviews infectious diseases and the microbial world throughout history. The author helpfully positions disease as contextualized within its social history rather than divorced from it. . . . Although her prose is always solidly expressed in an academic manner, Magner's book is accessible to the informed and motivated layperson. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers.” —Choice

From the Publisher