Waubonsee Community College

Pandemics, Peter C. Doherty

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-212)

illustrations

no index present

non fiction

Pandemics

bibliography

823216237

Peter C. Doherty

What everyone needs to know

"From HIV to H1N1, pandemics pose one of the greatest threats to global health in the twenty-first century. Defined as epidemics of infectious disease across large geographic areas, pandemics can disseminate globally with incredible speed as humans and goods move faster than ever before. While restricted travel, quarantine, vaccines, drugs, and education can reduce the severity of many outbreaks, factors such as global warming, population density, and antibiotic resistance will complicate our ability to fight disease. Respiratory infections like influenza and SARS spread quickly as a consequence of modern, mass air travel, while unsafe health practices promote the spread of viruses like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. In Pandemics: What Everyone Needs to Know, Nobel Prize-winning immunologist Peter Doherty addresses the history of pandemics and the ones that persist today, what promotes global spread, types of pathogens and the level of threat they pose, as well as how to combat outbreaks and mitigate their effects"--Provided by publisher

1. Infection and immunity -- Difference between a virus and bacterium -- Difference between RNA and DNA -- Colds and flu -- Pathogen -- What is snot? -- Horizontal infection --If there is a bacterial and protozoal "microbiome," is there a "virome"? -- Immunity -- Monoclonal antibodies -- mAbs : drugs or vaccines? -- Vaccines -- 2. Pandemics, epidemics, and outbreaks -- H1N1 "swine flu" -- How does the WHO operate? -- Pandemic classification system -- Difference between pandemic, epidemic or outbreak -- "Zoonosis" -- Endemic infection -- Are plants also included in the world of pandemics? -- 3. The SARS warning -- "Natural" reservoirs -- 4. Tuberculosis and influenza -- Multi-drug-resistant TB -- MDR TB -- Different kinds of influenza virus -- Antigenic shift -- Are birds and pigs our main concern when it comes to catching the flu? -- 1918-1919 influenza pandemic -- Flu vaccines -- 5. Fledermaus to field mouse -- Is it unusual that fruit bats carry SARS? -- Henipaviruses -- Ebola -- Hemorrhagic disease -- Filoviruses6. Virus vectors -- WNV -- WNV infects birds, horses, and humans : does it also multiply in mosquitoes? -- Yellow fever virus -- Global movements of arboviruses -- Do mosquitoes and ticks really carry needles? -- Vectored viruses -- 7. Single-host human pathogens -- Noroviruses -- Virus diarrheas -- Intussusception -- Cholera and typhoid -- Measles -- GI tract infections -- Hepatitis vaccine -- HepB and HepC -- Chronic hepatitis -- Is it safe to have a blood transfusion? -- 8. HIV/AIDS -- Any improvement in the AIDS situation? -- Where did this virus come from, and why didn't we see AIDS before 1981? -- Was AIDS active much earlier in Africa? -- Does the immune system fail totally when confronted with HIV? -- How does HIV target the CD4+ T cell? -- Vaccine for AIDS? -- Once in the human body, can HIV ever be eliminated? -- 9. Mad cows and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- Spongiform encephalopathy -- TSEs -- Did BSE originate from sheep scrapie? -- "Bone meal" -- Has anyone contracted vCJD from eating imported British beef? -- BSE/vCJD pandemic? -- 10. Economics and the human-animal equation -- 11. Bioterrorism -- Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction -- Smallpox -- Anthrax -- 12. Protecting humanity from and during pandemics -- 13. Conclusions