Book Description
Bitten True Medical Stories of Bites and Stings Pamela Nagami, M.D. Startling true cases of bite attacks, resulting infections, and ensuing treatments-from ticks, ants, and flying bats to elephant seals, komodo dragons, rhesus macaques, and the deadliest of all, humans he bite attacks featured in this dramatic book take placearound the world and throughout history. Some are as familiar and con-tem--por-ary as West Nile virus and as exotic and foreign as African Sleeping Sickness. Others, such as Penile Flesh-eating strep, the consequence of a human bite, are in a category of their own. Shocking examples include: -A nursing home attendant finds her patient's body swarm-ing with fire ants -A young girl descends into weeks of extreme lassitude until doctors discover an engorged tick feeding on her scalp -A traveler returns from Peru with Leishmaniasis, the slow decay of the nose and nasal passages The popularity and high ratings of The Animal Planet and The Discovery Channel have revealed an American appetite for the gruesome and deadly. In Bitten, Nagami caters to readers who are intrigued by human infec-tion and disease, and mesmerized by creatures in the wild. 'A marvelous volume of tales about hunting down infection in the emergency room, the operating room, and the intensive care unit.' -Jane E. Allen, Los Angeles Times on The Woman with a Worm in Her Head PAMELA NAGAMI, M.D., is a practicing physician in internal medicine and infectious diseases with the S. C. Permanente Medical Group and a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA. She lives with her husband in Encino, California. Current Affairs 0-312-31822-7 $24.95 $36.95 Canadian 51/2" x 81/4" / 368 pages July ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Creepy!
One gruesome story after another about the death and misery brought bythose tiny critters we share the planet with-you'll look twice before you sit on a rock while camping or go swimming...or eat...or travel...not for the feint of heart

fascinating
About: A very in depth look at the bites and stings of different animals and the diseases they may cause. Spiders, snakes, jellyfish, tsetse flies, cone snails, ticks, mosquitoes (including a particularly wonderful section on West Nile), Komodo dragons, alligators, crocodiles, seals, dogs, cats, horses, donkeys, camels, humans, monkeys, rabies, bird attacks and fish with spears are all covered. In fact, the only thing that I thought was missing was a section on sharks, but the addition of so many other biting animals more than make up for this omission. Besides, there are plenty of shark books, but this is the only book I've seen camel, donkey and seal bites addressed.

Pros: Engaging and fascinating. I looked forward to picking it up again after I put it down. Covers things I've never read about before. Scientific terms are clearly explained in the text as well as in the included glossary. Writing is very accessible. Great balance of science and anecdotes. Glossary, references.

Cons: A section on sharks was notably absent but this is a minor gripe considering what is covered

Grade: A+

Part natural history work, part medical thriller, very interesting book
_Bitten_ by Pamela Nagami, is a very interesting and well-researched popular science compilation of information and stories about just about every animal that stings, bites, or can carry infectious disease. Though a few are left out (notably sharks), a great many are included, each chapter often opening up with an interesting case history of a person afflicted by one of the animals in question, followed up by information on the organism, details on the disease that they may spread, and generally several other case histories of various patients throughout the world (some of which are from the author's own experiences as a practicing physician specialized in infectious disease). I found riveting not only some of the case histories but also the incredible medical detective stories, both those relating to saving patient's lives and in other instances the struggle to develop an anti-venom or to find the animal spreading a disease. Several chapters included information on what the reader should do when confronted by this animal (for example tips on safe tick removal and effective treatment for cat and dog bites). A helpful glossary and extensive bibliography are included.

The first several animals included in the book are dangerous mainly because of their venomous bites or stings, namely fire ants, several spider species, Portuguese man-of-war and various jellyfish species, cone snails, and a number of venomous snakes.

The fire ant chapter was illuminating. I was fascinated to learn that fire ants are even more trouble than I had imagined; livestock have been known to starve when fire ants render their food inaccessible, thousands of trout have been found that died from venom poisoning after eating swarms of winged males and queens that had flown into lakes, and fire ants, attracted to the warmth of heated asphalt, have caused rural roads to collapse as they built mounds beneath them, the undermined soil eventually subsiding and causing the road to collapse.

The chapter on spiders was also quite interesting. The reasons why small spider bites can cause such huge problems for victims is still incompletely understood, but may have to do with an enzyme found in some spider venom (such as that of the brown recluse) that attacks and dissolves cell membranes. This enzyme sets a victim's defenses against his or her own tissue, leading white blood cells to dissolve a victim's flesh. This necrotic arachnidism is a worldwide problem and there isn't any consensus on best treatment.

The next group of animals was largely included for the ability to transmit infectious disease. Included in this section are ticks, tsetse flies (with the emphasis being largely on sleeping sickness), and the sandfly (which spread leishmaniasis, parasitic diseases of the skin, moist membranes of the mouth and airway, liver, spleen, and bone marrow, caused by protozoa of the genus _Leishmania_ ). Also included was a chapter on the West Nile virus, a chapter which read like a medical thriller.

Tick paralysis was very interesting to read about. At first a rather mysterious paralytic illness, physicians discovered that an attached tick could cause a type of spreading paralysis in a person or in livestock, a completely debilitating and even potentially fatal paralysis yet one that can be stopped and completely reversed when the tick is found and removed (viewers of the show _House_ will remember a case of tick paralysis from the series; indeed many of the case histories sound like the opening segments of a _House_ episode, minus of course the misanthropic doctor).

It was sad to learn that human African trypanosomiasis (East African and West African sleeping sickness) was present on the continent since prehistoric times but only became widely disseminated when Africans left their ancestral homelands thanks to roads and railways brought by the Europeans during the colonial period, a problem exacerbated when what measure of disease control maintained by the empires collapsed during the civil wars and chaos left in the wake of the European withdrawal.

Massive efforts were made to control sleeping sickness, including for a time the draconian method of wholesale destruction of wild game. In addition to "being repugnant to practically everyone," these efforts were doomed to fail because the tsetse fly, when deprived of lions, hartebeests, and bushbucks, simply moved to smaller game, and in areas cleared of wildlife, humans and their livestock moved in, becoming replacement hosts themselves for the parasites. Nagami quoted from Dr. Robert Desowitz, the author of an essay on sleeping sickness ("The Fly Who Would Be King"), who noted that "the tsetse and the trypanosome are the most stalwart guardians of the African ecosystem and its magnificent wild fauna."

The final section looked at animals that pose a danger from the damage caused by their teeth and claws and from the infection of those wounds. Included in this section where chapters on the komodo dragon, alligators, crocodiles, dogs, cats, ferrets, rats, horses, donkeys, camels, garfish,seals, roosters, owls, monkeys, the wildlife that spreads rabies, and surprisingly humans(human bite injuries, particularly to the knuckle joint, can become infected with the bacterium _Eikenella corrodens_ which can cause irreversible damage).

I was surprised to read how vicious ferrets can be. In 1988 alone physicians in Denver, Colorado reported three cases of severe facial injuries to infants from attacks by pet ferrets. In one instance a three-month-old girl, placed in her crib with her bottle, was attacked by the family ferret which managed to climb in and a few minutes chew off forty percent of both her ears. Another patient, a baby girl, lost her nose to a ferret attack.

A very interesting series of chapters, the squeamish reader is warned about "seal finger" (a bacterial infection caused by seal bites, one that can cause swollen and stiff fingers and joints and pain so agonizing that sealers once amputated their own fingers for relief) and rats eating the flesh of sleeping people (those with nerve damage, such from diabetes and leprosy, are quite susceptible to rat attacks at night).

Excellent book to read while traveling.
Great book!Each chapter reads like a separate short story which makes it perfect for traveling.

fascinating
If you like this genre of writing, you will enjoy this volume. Fascinating true stories, and yes, it would make a great travel guide for some. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Southern Medical Journal, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2005. The length of the article is 584 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The patient's page.(side-effects of Warfarin)(methods for the treatment of Catfish stings)(complications and side-effects of antipsychotic medications )
Author: Jennifer McKinney
Publication: Southern Medical Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 98Issue: 7Page: 753(1)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Jack & Jill, published by Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society, Inc. on October 1, 2002. The length of the article is 528 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Ask Doctor Cory.(spider bites, childhood asthma)
Author: Cory SerVaas
Publication: Jack & Jill (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2002
Publisher: Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society, Inc.
Volume: 64Issue: 7Page: 34(2)

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