The Power of Plagues

REVIEW 1 Microbiology nonfiction books tend to fall into the academic category, basically as curated collections of review articles that detail a relatively specialized niche of the field. At the other end of the spectrum lie those books written purely for a general audience that might bring in microbiological themes within a larger scope, usually human health. To make a theological comparison, the latter can be like reading the book of Ruth (which doesn't even mention God), and the former like Leviticus (which is filled with laws and measurements related to dealing with God). Both are valuable. The casual, uninitiated reader isn't usually keen to drown in dry details, while the discerning reader with foundational knowledge might crave something more than a surface skim. The Power of Plagues is an example of a much rarer book that attempts to balance those two extremes. The many readers of this blog who have a deep interest in microbiology or disease - but who aren't specialists that need to pour over drier minutiae - will appreciate this book, now in its second edition. Sherman, a Professor Emeritus (UC Riverside), Visiting Professor (UCSD), and researcher into the biochemistry of malaria has the background to give readers microbiological details. And he frequently does so, such as when discussing mechanisms of artemisinin activity and resistance in Plasmodium. But he avoids going too deeply into that rabbit hole of scientific detail, or getting caught up in the style of academic review articles. Instead he writes with a straight-forward and naturally flowing text that emphasizes historical anecdotes and cultural references. For example, in a chapter on Yersinia pestis, Sherman describes actions taken by the Venetian Republic to restrict dis-embarkment from cargo ships for 40 days (a quaranta that gave rise to our word quarantine). Soon after he discusses cultural impacts of the Plague, from Bruegel paintings to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The Power of Plagues devotes most of its chapters to the stories of a specific pathogen/disease that has affected humans on a large scale through outbreak or epidemic. Most of these 'plagues' are bacterial (e.g. Cholera, Typhus, Leprosy), with HIV and Smallpox featured from the viruses, and a chapter on malaria including the sole featured protist. However, other viruses (e.g. Influenza, Measles) appear in a chapter devoted to Immunization, and Sherman discusses some viruses, protists, and animal parasites within chapters entitled "Six Plagues of Africa" and "Emerging and Re-Emerging Plagues." As far as I can recall, fungi don't appear, besides being mentioned as secondary AIDS-related infections. Given the increasing problems of fungal infection to animals in general (including humans), I find this unfortunate. The strong focus of each chapter is a strength of the book, one that makes it not only a good book for general reading, but also for use in classes with specific chapters as supplemental material, or the entire text in a history of disease survey. However, the organization of the chapters themselves in the book perplexes. The book opens and closes with reasonable topics. But in between, the chapters are placed seemingly randomly. The first chapter defines "The Nature of Plagues," and the two that follow provide historical context, one regarding how plague outbreaks are affected by human civilization and then one with a survey of "Six Plagues of Antiquity." The actual microbiological agent responsible for some of these ancient plagues remains controversial in some cases, but Sherman addresses the predominant interpretations and the data that has led researchers to particular conclusions. Unfortunately, this chapter first introduces the problem that some diseases or species are mentioned across different chapters of the book, leading to redundancies in the text. Rather than continuing on a temporal organization of chapte

Irwin W. Sherman, Professor Emeritus at the University of California (Riverside), is a Visiting Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Diego. His laboratory research centered on the biochemistry of malaria parasites and resulted in more than 150 scholarly papers. Dr. Sherman wrote Twelve Diseases That Changed Our World, also published by ASM Press, and several books that share his expertise in malaria prevention and treatment.

Table of Contents Preface | vii 1. The Nature of Plagues | 1 2. Plagues, the Price of Being Sedentary | 21 3. Six Plagues of Antiquity | 43 4. An Ancient Plague, the Black Death | 67 5. A 21st Century Plague, AIDS | 91 6. Typhus, a Fever Plague | 113 7. Malaria, Another Fever Plague | 133 8. "King Cholera" | 163 9. Smallpox, the Spotted Plague | 197 10. Preventing Plagues: Immunization | 217 11. The Plague Protectors: Antisepsis to Antibiotics | 265 12. The Great Pox Syphilis | 305 13. The People's Plague: Tuberculosis | 323 14. Leprosy, the Striking Hand of God | 355 15. Six Plagues of Africa | 367 16. Emerging and Re-emerging Plagues | 411 Appendix. Cells and Viruses | 446 Notes | 449 Bibliography