Customer Reviews (22)

True, despite African Apologists
I find it amusing that many people feel this book is biased.They obviously have never expreienced first hand what Africa has become two generations out from liberation.

I found Malaria Dreams to be an accurate portrayal of the petty and amusing way of life, at least in Central Africa.I was particularly surprised to be able to actually identify real people in Bangui based on the characters in this book, ranging from ministers to Embassy employees.I was in Bangui for two years and faced with petty bureaucracy -- the customs agent who demanded tax be paid on a $10,000 part the German Government DONATED in an attempt to make the country's electric turbine operational for more than an hour a day, the tax official who held up clearance of diplomatic goods until the Embassy threatened to cancel the shrimp order for the 4th of July reception (the minister's wife had the monopoly on shrim imports).

WHat Malaria dreams shows is that in the wake of colonialism, Africa is decending back into a patchwork of tribal areas and tribal thinking, with the few "Big Men" presiding over tyranny and misery, as in Zimbabwe.

Easy, enjoyable read
I truly enjoyed reading this book.Mr. Stevens does a fantastic job of focusing on what is entertaining and interesting.He does not dwell on useless facts that typically bog a book down; instead he tells witty little stories of his experience.I received this book on a Friday and finished it by Sunday it was a quick highly enjoyable read.

Excellent
After reading some of the other comments, I can only conclude that there is a serious humour deficit amongst some segments of the Amazon book reviewing population.Only the hypersensitive or the irredeemably politically correct could possibly fail to enjoy this book.

The naysayers make a big deal about the author poking fun at the native Africans, but fail to notice the amount of self-depreciation he also engages in.Ultimately, you get the sense of an inexperienced but well-meaning traveller who was completely unprepared for Africa but who realises it and sees the funny side of his own naivete.He is poking fun at himself as much as anyone else.And assuming that the tales he tells of African bureaucracy are true - and having experienced it myself, I'm inclined to believe them - why on earth should he not have a laugh about them?

As a storyteller, the author has a real gift and I found the book difficult to put down.

One star subtracted only because of the abrupt and wholly unsatisfying ending.

Thisisn't paradise
This book, firstof all, is not the typical "vacation book" one may purchase to motivate themselves with tales of lovely places and experiences to relish on your long awaited exotic South African adventure.

It should be acknowledged that this is a tongue in cheek review of either an ignorant gentleman, or an educated travel writer delivering just what the reader loves to read.Taken too seriously, the book is offensive.Taken too literally, one can barely believe anyone so STUPID would undertake anassignment such as the author does with no preparation whatsoever. Taken modestly, with appreciation for the genuine spirit of all people, one can easily see the unique capacity the African people have to live life and share generously with strangers passing by.

The endemic frustrations of travel are mirrored constantly by Mr. Stevens.In comic reproductions, it is recalled for the benefit of the reader, of course.The stories are hilarious and bittersweet.Many times I relished the fact that I washome and not experiencing the agony he was. Many more times, I assured myself that I would never subject myself to such unprepared punishment.But, this is what titillates a travel reader, experiencing a travel writer's life in the insured lounger of one's insured home. I appreciate those that cast their fate tothe winds, and allow their adventures to take shape according to chance.It was just suchopportunities that the author encountered. Unexpectantly, and often at times of great distress, he and his companion were invited into the townspeople's homes. Later, afterbeing fed, bathed and liquored, solid friendships formed, and the true spirit oftraveling in Central Africa was appreciated.

Great book for a long flight
This is just the book to read on a long flight in economy class. Any delays and discomforts you have to put up with will fade by comparison with what Stevens experienced. It's a hilarious account of travels in Central and West Africa. (incidentally at that time, the 1980's, Algeria was relatively safe).
Africans might have a legitimate gripe with the way they are portrayed but most comic travel books tend to portray the inhabitants of a country as childish or incompetent. Read Dickens's "American Notes." I would have liked to hear the author's ideas on why things are as they are in Africa. Whose fault is it? What can be done? What will happen in future? This may be complaining that he has not written a different book but I see that he is, according to the jacket a "political consultant" so he must have some opinions. ... Read more

Book Description

Malaria sickens hundreds of millions of people -- and kills one to three million -- each year. Despite massive efforts to eradicate the disease, it remains a major public health problem in poorer tropical regions. But malaria has not always been concentrated in tropical areas. How did other regions control malaria and why does the disease still flourish in some parts of the globe?

From Russia to Bengal to Palm Beach, Randall Packard's far-ranging narrative traces the natural and social forces that help malaria spread and make it deadly. He finds that war, land development, crumbling health systems, and globalization -- coupled with climate change and changes in the distribution and flow of water -- create conditions in which malaria's carrier mosquitoes thrive. The combination of these forces, Packard contends, makes the tropical regions today a perfect home for the disease.

Authoritative, fascinating, and eye-opening, this short history of malaria concludes with policy recommendations for improving control strategies and saving lives.

Customer Reviews (19)

Besides malaria, a case study in the ripple affect
A short, but informative history of the relationship between humans and malaria.I was especially intrigued at the various strains and how they interacted with humans, our livestock and the local ecology.A lot of variables are in play, many of which are under our control, such as how we cleared ground, which types were attracted to humans vs. livestock, the effect of living close to our animals, and how some northern climates were hit and how the people of the time perceived and dealt with malaria when it hit their community.

The book also serves, like Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, as an excellent case study in how humans dramatically impact the environment.Another case study is served in terms of showing the development of the scientific method to fight this bug and how different our approach is now to seeking knowledge and applying it relative to more primitive times.

This book would make an excellent peripheral book in a science class to provide practical insight into the philosophy of science and how science applies this methodology in the real world.

Great overview for general public
My background is in microbiology, and I've been interested in malaria as both an infectious agent and the illness it causes.This book gives a great overview of the history of the disease as well as its future implications. The language is readable for the layperson without being too "dumbed-down". Great diagrams, maps and illustrations aid the presentation.
Recommended!

Excellent book of history and policy
Once upon a time there was a mosquito. And this mosquito carried something with her and gave it to everyone she met.Men in peculiar outfits sprayed all over the land, and the mosquito was banished, in that land at least.

This is the story of malaria.The story that I've heard.

But the actual story of Malaria is a lot more complex.Who would have, for instance, expected a history on a supposed tropical disease to begin with a study of a city in Northern Russia?The Making of a Tropical Disease does just that.

Honestly, this isn'talways a fun book to read.Some books are very good about inspiration and motivation and glide along in presenting the chosen perspective.This isn't about inspiration or motivation. It is more ambitious.There are times in which it slows down and gets into details and spends a long time one what might seem a minor point.But, this negative isn't really a criticism.These seemingly minor points are in fact important, and it is the tendency to gloss over such points that undermine so many attempts to respond.

This certainly is a well written book.Randall Packard is a very good writer, and even with my above comment I must add he does a wonderful job of making personal connection.In his journey through the history of where malaria spread he does not only relate facts and figures. He tells a story, and in telling that story has written a very, very solid history.

But more than a history The Making of a Tropical Disease is also really a book on global policy.Packard does not hide this fact.He is making the point that malaria is not simply a story about random mosquitoes who live in unfortunate places.Rather, malaria is a disease that responds to human interaction, and throughout history there is a direct correlation between policy, politics, land use, economics and the occurrence of malaria.Humans interact with this world, and this interaction is not neutral but rather creates changes. These changes can bring open the door to ill effects.

This is not simply asserted and then policies recommended that fit some pre-conceived political bias. Rather, Packard is very scientific and very good in his history, laying out clearly the practices and results that led to malaria in certain regions.He respects the use of sources and when making a leap in interpretation or dealing with a situation in which clear records might be sketchy he admits this. His interpretation of data, however, seems solid even when he must depend on inference.

Packard is laying an absolutely solid foundation to a holistic policy in regards to malaria, and more than malaria.In a way this is a very post-modern book. The pre-moderns suffered from nature. The moderns sought to conquer nature, overwhelming it. The mass application of DDT resulted.Packard builds a middle ground, arguing that we should neither be victims but nor should we deny our own impact.Instead, by understanding nature, malaria and mosquitoes and land and water and humanity, we can develop intentional policies that that reflect the unintentional answers to past malaria outbreaks.

This really is an extraordinary book.For those who are interested in diseases it makes for an interesting read. For those who are interested in global politics and policies it pushes beyond the usual responses and builds a solid case for real, lasting and healthy actions that can literally save lives and entire regions from decay.

My perspective on malaria was at the same time begun and provoked, leading me to see so much of global realities with a new understanding.Very few books can be considered transformational, but Packard really did transform my thinking.

This should be a required book for anyone involved in global studies.

A Medical History of Malaria
This book was not a easy read for me.I am not a doctor or in medicine, the audience this book was clearly written for.I picked it up as part of the Amazon Vine program.Reading the book was difficult but interesting.I learned that while the disease occurs among people in trpical areas, it is not merely a disease caught due to proximity to a tropical area but based on man's changes to the land, economic development, social strata and poverty.

A Good Read about Malaria
I read this book while recovering from surgery, believe it or not. And I really enjoyed it. This is a true "story" of Malaria -- highly readable and yet well - researched. I knew nothing about the history of Malaria as a disease before I read The Making of a Tropical Disease.By the time I finished, I'd learned a lot -- including the fact that Malaria still exists in the Southern US and that in the 1600s, it was endemic in parts of England.

If you're looking for a good book about medical history with some social history thrown in for good measure, this is a great choice.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A very good book which could have been better
As the other reviewers have pointed out, this is a very informative book about two terrible insect-transmitted diseases, malaria and kala-azar. The sections of the book dealing with the mis-management of the efforts in the search of vaccines are particularly interesting. Overall, this is certainly a worthwhile book.

Unfortunately, the writing is not memorable, and I found the author often a bit patronizing and trying too hard to be funny or witty where good, serious prose would have been more welcome. Also, sometimes technical concepts are mentioned without giving the reader sufficient background to fully appreciate their meaning and implications (unlike, for instance, in most of Stephen J Gould's writing, to mention an outstanding example of science essayist).

From this perspective, I think Harrison's "Mosquitoes, malaria and men" is a much better book on the history of the interaction between malaria and men, even if it does have the drawback of being about 30 years old, and hence misses almost all of the post 70s fight against malaria history. Friends tell me that Honigsbaum's "The Fever Trail" is also very good and more up to date, but I have not read it so I have no personal opinion about that.

So, let us put it this way, I found Desowitz to be an intelligent, very competent and compassionate writer, but I also found him a bit condescending, and his balance between clarity (for the layman) and completeness is a bit too tilted towards the former. Still, a good read, and I thank the author for his effort and for the resulting book!

15 years later, the situation's still just as bad
I published this review in 1992. Little has changed since, but for Amazon I have updated a few points.

The biggest disease threat in the world is not AIDS. Not lung cancer. Not heart disease. It's malaria, which kills more people every year than AIDS has killed altogether. (2007 update: No longer true; AIDS now kills about as many people as malaria each year.)
Most of them are young children, with pregnant mothers also a prime target. Almost all are poor, powerless and colored.
And their situation today is worse, considerably worse, than when the rich countries amassed their advanced medical and public health techniques to attack malaria a couple of generations ago.
In this angry book, Robert Desowitz, a (now retired) professor of tropical medicine, medical microbiology and public health at the University of Hawaii, says it did not have to be, and, as he has in past books, he points the finger of blame when other commentators are too scared to.
True, malaria is a tough foe. Of several kinds, only one, caused by a parasite called Plasmodium falciparum, is often fatal, but it is a fearsome predator. Where falciparum reigns, the infant mortality rate runs 40 to 50 percent.
And its imperium is spreading. Malaria used to be relatively uncommon in the cities of black Africa, which, bleak as they were, were inhospitable to mosquitoes. The cities have grown enormously, and failed attempts to eradicate the principal mosquito vector merely bred mosquitoes with urban tastes.
Malaria, however, is not only a tropical disease. Rich countries tend to control their mosquitoes -- by destroying their wetlands, if nothing else -- but as recently as the 1890s, the coast of Georgia was depopulated by malaria, and when Desowitz was studying in London there was malaria there, too. But most of us think seldom of malaria; no one gives dance benefits to raise money for malaria.
To reinforce the difference between the rich and healthy and the poor and diseased, Desowitz also traces the story of another killer of the poor in the tropics, a disease most Americans have never even heard of, visceral leishmaniasis. It is a parasite, too, but spread by a sandfly.
It is nearly as deadly a killer as plague, and where it reigns -- Bangladesh, Bengal, Nepal -- it has the same name, kala azar, the black sickness.
Desowitz, no sensationalist, describes one death from each disease, just to show what it's like, in chapters of relentless horror.
Then he turns to equally relentless analysis. Things get complicated. For example, the leishmania organism has been around as long as man (and undoubtedly a lot longer), but accounts of the disease start only in 1824. Early recorded epidemics apparently spread thanks to the improved transportation system the British brought to India. (Which might seem a bad bargain, but economic historians think that system, especially the railways, ended famine in India, with the exception of one last hunger engineered by Mohandas Gandhi -- yes, the Mahatma, the only lawyer besides Thomas More ever to make saint.)
Complications pile on complications. "Kala azar is not a Stars and Stripes disease like cancer, coronaries, stroke and allergies," writes Desowitz. "No American president is going to introduce a bill for Congress to fund a War on Visceral Leishmaniasis," yet western experts and western money have explained the central problems of the disease, as they did of malaria.
They even found a moderately effective treatment, but it costs $15 (1992 price), which is far beyond the means of the citizens of the empire of kala azar.
So, like malaria, no one, especially in the rich countries, pays much attention to kala azar now. "No major efforts have been made to find an antimalarial to replace chloroquinine," a miracle drug against malaria until the plasmodium adapted to it. Modern medical research has "made the development of drugs to treat the diseases of poor people uneconomical." (2007 update: In testimony before Congress in 2004, Desowitz blamed U.S. AID for continuing to buy chloroquinine, which, he now says, is not only not a cure but in some circumstances is actually harmful.)
But there are even more complications. Skipping over some, we come to the Agency for International Development, which for over 20 years (2007 update: 35 years) has been spending millions to develop a malaria vaccine.
Never mind that "there has never been a vaccine to protect or cure any parasitical disease of humans," or that AID is not normally a medical research bureau. The program was, Desowitz says, in the hands of incompetents, some of whom are already in prison, other awaiting trial for peculations. (2007 update: 5 convictions)
Within its own empire, AID is circulating a self-serving description of this disaster, claiming that despite thievery, the program has made great strides. Desowitz says it has accomplished nothing significant, and I accept his version. (2007 update: no change)
His track record is superb. When all we got was happy talk from the medical community, Desowitz explained (in "The Thorn and the Starfish") why an AIDS vaccine is unlikely; when the rest of the medical community was nearly silent about the feminist attack on Bendectin, the only drug useful against morning sickness, Desowitz told us thatwas hogwash, and in 1991, in a widely unreported decision, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that the so-called evidence against Bendectin was worthless. But by then it was too late; nobody makes Bendectin any more.
Desowitz is one of my few heroes. Of the AID malaria criminals he says, "It is possible that the villains were not the indicted, but the respectable, established and honored scientists. These were the men and women who said not a word in public protest when their opinions were . . . manipulated into falsifications. These were the men and women who said in private that the AID-sponsored research was of doubtful quality. These were the men and women who disregarded their responsibilities as leaders of their profession. Their silence may have caused irreparable harm . . . ."
In the 19th century, Henrik Ibsen wrote a play whose hero was "An Enemy of the People" because he spoke out when everyone else thought it best to keep quiet. That is exactly the kind of hero Dr. Robert Desowitz is.

Thought-provoking study of Malaria and Kala Azar
Robert Desowitz leaves his readers with many 'cliff-hangers' in "The Malaria Capers".The version I read was published in 1991, so some of his unfinished stories may have endings by now---all except for the most important story of all, which is the search for an effective vaccine against the parasitic protozoans that cause malaria and kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis).

Immunization campaigns have eradicated smallpox and may be on the verge of eradicating polio, but the two diseases that this book focuses on cannot currently be prevented with vaccines.The danger of catching malaria or kala azar can be minimized---unfortunately the majority of the population at risk can't even afford the most effective preventive measure---a bed net soaked in insecticide (according to 2000 World Health Organization statistics this costs about $4, plus $1 per year for a supply of insecticide).

No wonder Desowitz gets so mad and preachy in "The Malaria Capers".Malaria still kills over one million people a year (another 2000 WHO statistic) - most of them young children.None of the vaccines that scientists were working on when this book was written have proven to be effective, which is exactly what Desowitz predicted.In his last chapter, "The Vaccine Felonies", he excoriates the Malaria researchers who spent their AID grants on vaccines that were already proven to be ineffective and unsafe for humans.While doing so, they diverted funding from proven preventive measures such as bed nets, put Owl monkeys on the endangered species list, and (even more feloniously according to our laws) lavished the grant money on themselves and their office assistants.One of the stories that Desowitz couldn't finish in 1991 was whether these researchers were tried, convicted, and sent to prison.

This book is more polemical and as a result, less interesting to the lay reader (myself) than his "New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers", but it does have a few 'human interest' stories.The most haunting begins in a small Thai village:

"...The school assembly bell, hanging by a rope from a limb of a mango tree, is the nose cone from an unexploded [Japanese] bomb.Next to the school, raised on pillars, is the wooden residence of a group of monks.On this late morning in June their prayers have ended; only the unceasing anguished cries of a monk dying from throat cancer break the subdued quiet of the village.In a one-room, wood-framed, tin pan-roofed house at the village edge, Amporn Punyagaputa, twenty-three years old and big with child, sits alone, feverish and confused by the searing pain in her head."

Stories like this represent Desowitz at his best and most humane.I can almost guarantee that Amporn Punyagaputa will help you remember why Malaria is still such a killer, long after you'veforgotten who misappropriated the AID funds.And you will definitely understand why Desowitz is so angry.You'll be angry, too.

A "Must Read" for Infectious Disease & Public Health Folks
Robert Desowitz's attempt to chronicle the successes and failures of man's quest to leash the ravages of tropical disease (especially malaria and leishmaniasis), results in a very engaging and easy to read book.Through his entertaining and at times, cynical approach, the author explains how throughout history, man's desire to rid himself of the pestilence of infectious disease has sometimes met with success (as in the case of smallpox), as well as with failure (as in the case of malaria).If for instance, we take the case of malaria, just in the figures utilized by the author in his accounting of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) effort to combat malaria, he chronicled over $100 million "thrown at" this disease, with the disease still flourishing today in many parts of the world! The author's method of "personalizing" or presenting the experiences and challenges faced by many people in this world at the individual level, succeeds in engaging the reader from the very first chapter.The opening account of the Indian woman, Susheela, who tries desperately to save her dying daughter from visceral leishmaniasis, only to discover that the medicine required to save her daughter is grossly unaffordable, rivets the reader's attention.Here is a personal account of a human tragedy, which could have been told from the perspective of too many families in developing countries even in today's modern world of globalized interdependence.Additionally, Mr. Desowitz does a good job of giving the reader a historical context in which many of the major events in the history of public health, actually took place.This helps the reader to develop a historical frame of reference and better understand the reasoning and motivations of key individuals and governments involved in tropical disease research during that particular period. Mr. Desowitz seeks to inform the reader as to why there currently exists either cures, treatments or vaccinations to only certain diseases, while other diseases seem to flourish with little to no concerted effort by any government, private or international agency to control them."During the past two decades," states the author, "when biotechnology has made so many stunning advances, the health of tropical peoples has worsened.New, affordable, non-toxic chemotherapeutics have not been developed (because) the drugs-for-profit pharmaceutical industry gives low priority to the diseases of the poor people." Rarely, suggests the author, has human altruism towards his fellow man been the primary reason for the development of protective measures and cures from these diseases.Other more materialistic or self-serving reasons such as economic gain, protection of business, government or military interests, or the quest for recognition and notoriety (such as the Nobel Prize), have been the primary reasons for tropical disease research.The author posits that this motivation continues to this day with relatively little contemporary research effort going into the "poor people diseases" of malaria and tuberculosis. The author presents his main argument first by effectively painting a bleak picture of despair in recent-day India, followed by a detailed chronology of the historical events (and non-events) that lead up to it, and then concludes with an implicit warning.The fact that the health of tropical people has worsened over the past several decades is a physical manifestation of a perceived lack of international concern for certain regions of the globe.Mr. Desowitz cites numerous examples of national and international efforts to combat certain diseases throughout history, and dissects them in a manner by which the reader is left with a more thorough understanding of why the project failed or succeeded in accomplishing its objective.He presents to the reader the "rest of the story" which usually underlies the official version of a project or initiative and uncovers how the human factor of greed, self-service, and ulterior motivations have sometimes driven honest efforts into subversion.On the contrary however, he also very effectively describes how some of the earlier pioneers in the study of infectious disease persevered even in the face of adversity and defeat.A very good example of this is the case of Surgeon Captain Ronald Ross who after over three years of painstaking research and experimentation, discovered that malaria was transmitted by the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito through its salivary glands.Captain Ross' discovery was the culmination of not only his own personal work, but also the work of the countless researchers who came before him and contributed towards the building of the existing body of knowledge in malaria.There were many occasions in Captain Ross' quest for discovery that this author would have thought twice about turning my research efforts elsewhere!He was a true testament in perseverance and will. The Malaria Capers is a "must" read for all public health professionals and those aspiring to become one, as well as personnel entering the clinical research field.It is a fundamental book that prepares those seeking to enter the public health arena to face the challenges contained in the field of infectious diseases.It also sheds some light to the infectious disease researcher why research is only conducted on some diseases, and not others.A potential weakness of this book (which is also a strength!) is the author's perceived cynicism, especially when he describes many of the human blunders and indiscretions, which in his opinion may have set back the discoveries of potentially life-saving drugs and programs by many years.Mr. Desowitz appears to be an absolute subject matter expert in the field, and one who has "walked the walk" and not just "talked the talk."He does an absolutely superb job in capturing the reader's attention and instilling in him the knowledge acquired through years of working the business of infectious disease research.I highly recommend this book to anyone even remotely interested in the area of infectious disease.A "highly recommended" book! ... 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Product Description
This book is the only patient book written in English offering highly practical, clear, and carefully researched help on Artemisinin medications. Artemisinin herbals are powerful treatments for red blood cell infections like Malaria, and another red blood cell parasite called Babesia, which has at least eight species that infect humans and is often missed by physicians in the United States and all over the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This book is truly a life-saver!
All I can say is "wow". From 15 years of personal experience, searching for an infectious disease diagnosis can be a needle in a haystack. This book shines the light on a very serious illness that most physicians are unaware even exists. This information is truly life-saving and worth sharing. ... Read more

Book Description
This is a wonderfully readable, nearly novel-like but masterfully scholarly all-encompassing history of malaria, a disease that still kills 2 to 3 million people every year, with unprecedented documentation of its impact on human events. The book contains more than 250 rare illustrations from obscure sources as well as a bibliography and names and dates section plus index. No other work ever attempted matches this volume's stunning scope and depth of coverage of malaria as one the great scourges of mankind responsible for defeating conquering armies, altering the fate of besieged cities, devastating the Papal conclaves, barring progress and civilization in Victorian times, and blamed by some historians for the decline of Greek civilization, the fall of the Roman Empire, and hindering the colonization of Africa. A unique and special work for the legion of medical and general readers fascinated by the evolution of science and medicine over the centuries. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
Internationally respected scientists and clinicians describe in step-by-step detail their most useful conventional and cutting-edge techniques for the study of malaria. Areas covered include clinical and laboratory diagnosis and typing, animal models, molecular biology, immunology, cell biology, vaccinology, laboratory models, and field applications. Each readily reproducible protocol has been tested, standardized, and optimized for experimental success, and includes many laboratory notes on troubleshooting, avoiding pitfalls, and interpreting results. Several of the most widely used methods are described here in detail for the first time or have been thoroughly updated since their original publication (e.g., in vitro culture of Plasmodium parasites and in vitro growth inhibition assay). ... Read more

Book Description
At the outset of the twentieth century, malaria was Italy’s major public health problem. It was the cause of low productivity, poverty, and economic backwardness, while it also stunted literacy, limited political participation, and undermined the army. In this book Frank Snowden recounts how Italy became the world center for the development of malariology as a medical discipline and launched the first national campaign to eradicate the disease.

Snowden traces the early advances, the setbacks of world wars and Fascist dictatorship, and the final victory against malaria after World War II. He shows how the medical and teaching professions helped educate people in their own self-defense and in the process expanded trade unionism, women’s consciousness, and civil liberties. He also discusses the antimalarial effort under Mussolini’s regime and reveals the shocking details of the German army’s intentional release of malaria among Italian civilians—the first and only known example of bioterror in twentieth-century Europe. Comprehensive and enlightening, this history offers important lessons for today’s global malaria emergency.

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Customer Reviews (1)

decades of struggle
Nowadays, malaria is typically relegated to a few developing countries around the equator. But it also afflicted Italy during much of the early twentieth century. Especially the warm southern regions. In no small part, it laid low the productivity of the people. Snowden shows how it became the predominant public health issue for many Italian governments.

Progress against malaria was slow and fitful. Quinine was recognised and promoted freely to sufferers. A dramatic and measurable improvement over what came before. As seen in a table, where the mortality per million fell from 490 in 1900 to 57 in 1914. Few public treatments have been as effective and, indeed, as simple and cheap to implement.

But World War 1 led to a resurgence, due to the difficult conditions of hostilities and the drain on government resources for the war effort. The postwar rise of Mussolini gave an episode in the struggle against malaria. He saw defeating it as a huge boost to his government. Thus, massive resources were spent on efforts like draining the Pontine Marshes, and other similar efforts in Apulia and Tuscany.

World War 2 led to the 1944 episode where the Wehrmacht introduced bioterror, by enabling the breeding of Anopheles in swamps, as the German army retreated north. Snowden's description of this is well done. In Europe, at least, it was the only known use of bioterror in the 20th century. And in direct contravention to the Conventions that Germany had signed before the war. Some readers will also see parallels with the Japanese biological efforts in Manchuria during that war. ... Read more

Book Description

"Cinchona revolutionized the art of medicine as profoundly as gunpowder had the art of war."

-- Bernardino Ramazzini, Physician to the Duke of Modena, Opera omnia, medica, et physica, 1716

Customer Reviews (7)

Malaria shows limits of evlution
Malaria has always plagued mankind. This gives us extensive history of the malaria parasite's and mankind's evolutionary response to each other. In reviewing this warfare of parasite vs. host in a scientific way, Michael Behe in his "The Edge of Evolution" shows how far evolution can go -- and it isn't very far.

Nicely Done
If you like meanders through history, and the type of big picture "How X changed the world" books, then this is for you.Draws upon the author's family history, and takes us on a 5 century long whirlwind tour.Liked it.

The Story of the Tree of Life
Many schoolboys in the developed world may know that malaria is the second largest killer of mankind in human history. (As a brief aside, the largest killer is ....... man!) I came to this book knowing very little else about the tropical disease. Yes, I knew that it was transmitted by mosquito bites, but my knowledge ended shortly after that point. Therefore I will readily admit to learning a great deal from this book ? about disease transmission and treatment in general and malaria in particular, and of the wonderful, quinine-bearing ?Peruvian bark? of the cinchona tree. The subject areas covered are enormous: combining more than 350 years of medicine, discovery, colonial conquests, papal intrigues, botany, and biological research. It whets the appetite, and shows that there is much to look into further.

The huge scope is both an advantage, and a disadvantage; an advantage because it gives the reader a context, but it highlights areas worthy of greater coverage with some parts a little sparse. There is little of the effectiveness of quinine (from the ?miraculous fever tree?), when compared to modern anti-malaria drugs ? the problems of, say Larium, have been well documented elsewhere. However, the author uses her own family background to off-set the story, and the approach is particularly effective. Parts are from her own story (growing up in Africa), whilst other small portions cover that of relatives (her great grandfather worked on building of the Panama Canal, and survived the ravages of both yellow fever, and malaria).

The dedication of early doctors, and plant specialists shines through, although in some sections the numerous individuals entering the story seem part of a list of people, places and dates. The telling of the mosquito life cycle, and the discovery of the effect of the insect is very good, with detail from the works of both Ronald Ross and Patrick Manson in the 1890?s.I did not realise that malaria was hitherto both so geographically extensive, and so important in war. This included both the Napoleonic wars, and the American Civil War. The life expectancy of British soldiers in West Africa in the early 19th century was less that 6 months, and was a calculated waste of life.

An interesting note is the prevalence of malaria in Europe, with the fatal effects of the papal enclave of 1623; a number of the electing cardinals did not return from their Pope-choosing visit to Rome. Malaria was also very evident in the Essex marshes in the late 17th century; immune local men would go to the hills in search of another woman when a wife died in the lower (malaria infested) regions. Some men had 14 or 15 wives, but never more than one at a time. Perhaps that is where the ?Essex girl? jokes started.

My overall feeling is that the book does not quite achieve its aim, chiefly because it is so hugely ambitious. It is however a very good read, and may even entice you to read further on the subject (with ample source material listed by the author). I am left at the end realising that there are still about 3,000,000 deaths each year from malaria, and most of these are preventable, whether that is using the product of the cinchona tree, or by some other means. The story may encourage people to strive for the eradication of the disease. Read it, and judge for yourself.

Peter Morgan (Bath, UK. morganp@supanet.com)

How can you write about the past without knowing the present
If you would write a book about economics would you visit your local bank manager to get all the background information?Would you think that it is sufficient to read your way through some archives? Probably not.
But this is what Rocco does to malaria. Rocco visits her childhood doctor in Kenya and spends a lot of time in archives to write about quinine. This may well be the safest and perhaps also the most comfortable approach to find the material for a book. And it could work for any subject, pianos in Berlin or cheese in Italy. Unfortunately what emerges is not a contemporary picture of the treatment of malaria or the history of malaria treatment but a rather skewed view on a historic niche.How can you try to understand the past if you don't know the present? If you care about some historical particularities, which pope had what malaria problem, written in beautiful English this is your book.

Bark, bugs and battles
This engaging account sketches the investigation and quest for a cure for the "mal 'aria" of Rome."Mal 'aria" was once thought to emanate from the "bad air" of swamps and marshes.Rocco, herself a victim of this dread illness, narrates its impact from ancient times into the modern world.When the death of a pope brought 55 cardinals to Rome to replace Gregory XV, 10 of them had contracted malaria within two weeks.Those who survived returning to Sees in European nations spread further a malady already prevalent in many nations as distant as the British Isles and Scandinavia.Even as the papal successor, who was also prostrated with chills and fever, struggled to survive the infection, some of his minions were advocating a likely cure against great skepticism.

Jesuit missionaries in the New World discovered Native Americans using a powdered tree bark to treat fevers and "agues".Sending the powder back to Catholic Europe introduced the first therapy for malaria, probably just as these same interlopers were infesting the Western Hemisphere with the parasite.Cinchona powder, diluted in wine to cover its bitterness, verged on the miraculous.As Rocco describes its effect, she also recounts the resistance to the "Jesuit powder" in Protestant Europe, particularly Britain.Lack of enthusiasm, plus military ineptness, led to a malarial onslaught in 1808, when an English attempt to invade Napoleon's empire ended in disaster.

Empire, war and malaria remained in close company throughout the 19th Century.British incursions into west Africa were stalled by the infection.At one point the medical records indicated more cases of malaria than there were settlers - due to repeat hospital patients.Even against this severity, progress was being made.It's said "there's always one" and Rocco shows how one dedicated man made an immense difference.On a voyage up the Niger, Baikie imposed a strict daily regimen of quinine dosage.One of his crew was murdered and one drowned - but none were lost to malaria.

Returning to the Western Hemisphere, Rocco describes the inept handling of fevers by the in the American Civil War.Vicksburg, she asserts, failed to be taken due to the Union's lack of quinine for its troops investing the city.Even greater disaster awaited the French in their attempt to link the Atlantic and Pacific with a Panama Canal.Instead of treating the workers, the French merely hid the casualty list and hired replacements.Even as late as World War II, battlegrounds in the Pacific highlighted the need for plentiful supplies of quinine.By that time, however, some synthetics had been developed.Malaria, however, is neither easily diagnosed nor treated.Rocco notes that there are several versions of the illness, and many varieties of cinchona.Matching them takes skill.

At the end of the 19th Century, malaria had been identified as a parasite, not the effusion of swampy fumes.Rocco describes the labours of British Army doctor Ronald Ross, who laboured under appalling conditions in India.He traced the course of the parasite, in part by dissecting mosquitoes with a razor blade!This new understanding led to more directed treatment, and, ultimately, a Nobel Prize for Ross.Rocco's diagram of the life cycle of the parasite suggests the complexity of the problem of diagnosis and therapy.

Rocco concludes with a reminder that malaria identified is not malaria eliminated.It kills millions of children every year and prostrates whole communities.South American forests were denuded by exploiters seeking the bark.The synthetics developed proved a temporary solution since the parasite appears to have evolved resistance to them.Today's chief source of natural quinine is a threatened forest in war-torn central Africa.She describes the travails of a firm struggling to maintain supply.The picture would be encouraging if the firm obtained support from industrial nations.That hasn't been forthcoming.

Rocco's opening sentence, "My grandparents had been married for many years when they left Europe for Africa - although not to each other" sets the tone of this book.Her personalised narrative form skips the use of footnotes, but there are Notes on Sources and a Further Reading list.A collection of photos and maps adds reference.[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada] ... Read more

Book Description
Malaria, the hidden killer, plagued Australian troops in the Pacific theater of World War II so severely that the government commissioned a special research team called the Land Headquarters Medical Research Unit, a team whose story and science are documented in this medical history. Experiments were conducted on more than 800 volunteers and 300 malaria-infected soldiers who were administered the drug atebrin. The rigid atebrin discipline resulted in the lowest malaria levels ever recorded among troops, an astounding accomplishment that makes this breakthrough relevant in the ongoing international fight against malaria. ... Read more

Book Description
Malaria is an increasing worldwide threat, with more than three hundred million infections and one million deaths every year. The world's poorest are the worst affected, and many treat themselves with traditional herbal medicines. These are often more available and affordable, and sometimes are perceived as more effective than conventional antimalarial drugs.The first book to be published on this subject, Traditional Medicinal Plants and Malaria explores the evidence for the safety and efficacy of some of these traditional medicines, and presents practical guidelines for designing studies on traditional plant-based antimalarial medicines, mosquito repellents, and insecticides. Systematic reviews of the literature and consensus guidelines form the main body of the book. Ethnomedical, ethnobotanical, pharmacological, phytochemical, toxicological, and clinical aspects of herbal antimalarials are also reviewed. These are supplemented by case studies of the most well-known traditional antimalarials. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent and useful book
This is an excellent book on the history of a terrible disease. It is clear, accurate and very well written. The book is relatively old, so it does not include almost any information on the attempts (unsuccessful so far) to develop a vaccine, but if you are looking for a readable and accurate book to be introduced to the history of the fight against malaria and of the men who mostly contributed to it, I don't think there is a better choice. Desovitz has a more recent book (The malaria capers) which belongs to the same category, but his style is condescending and he tries to be funny without any real sense of humor. Also, while Desovitz intoduces sometimes technical concepts without really giving enough information to the non-expect reader to appreciate the content, Harrison reaches a great balance between scientific accuracy and readibility. Finally, you can buy an excellent used copy of this book for a pittance. Highly recommended! ... Read more

Product Description
Malaria afflicts millions in low- and middle-income countries. For centuries, it has impaired economic growth, child development, learning, health, and productivity on a large scale. In 1998 the Bank cofounded, with WHO, UNICEF, and UNDP, the global Roll Back Malaria Partnership to coordinate and enhance the global fight against malaria. There has been some success, but the pace of work was slower than desired and the scale was less than expected. The world now faces additional challenges, not the least of which is the emergence of drug-resistant forms of malaria. This new Global Strategy increases efforts to control malaria. It lays the basis for a Booster Program for Malaria Control using country-led programs and partnerships with community service organizations, specialized agencies, and financiers of malaria control at all levels. The new Global Strategic Plan of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership combines measures to increase coverage of malaria-specific interventions with effective service delivery, broader health-system development, and capacity building across multiple sectors.Download Description
"Malaria afflicts millions in low- and middle-income countries. For centuries, it has impaired economic growth, child development, learning, health, and productivity on a large scale. In 1998 the Bank cofounded, with WHO, UNICEF, and UNDP, the global Roll Back Malaria Partnership to coordinate and enhance the global fight against malaria. There has been some success, but the pace of work was slower than desired and the scale was less than expected. The world now faces additional challenges, not the least of which is the emergence of drug-resistant forms of malaria. This new Global Strategy increases efforts to control malaria. It lays the basis for a Booster Program for Malaria Control using country-led programs and partnerships with community service organizations, specialized agencies, and financiers of malaria control at all levels. The new Global Strategic Plan of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership combines measures to increase coverage of malaria-specific interventions with effective service delivery, broader health-system development, and capacity building across multiple sectors. " ... Read more

Book Description
Africa's healthcare crises is well documented, even if not always accurately. What is undeniable is that millions of Africans are dying - from HIV/AIDs, tuberculosis, malaria and other illnesses - some of them easily preventable.Dr Akukwe examines the healthcare policies on Africa's major diseases - HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, showing how the healthcare crisis is bound up with, and worsens the general crisis of poverty in the continent. He also discusses how a different form of policy intervention can make all the difference. ________________________ Dr Chinua Akukwe is an adjunct professor of both global health and community/preventative health at the George Washington University School of Public Health, Washington, DC, USA, and also Chairman of the Technical Advisory Board of the university's Africa Center for Health and Human Security. He was equally a former member of the Executive Committee of the university's Medical Center Faculty Senate, the highest representative body of all professors affiliated with the medical center. A former Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee and Governing Board of the National Council for International Health, NCIH, (now known as the Global Health Council, Washington, DC), Dr Akukwe was also a member of the International Human Rights Committee of the American Public Health Association as well as a board member of the Christian Connections for International Health, an international ecumenical organization based in the United States. A widely published scholar on HIV/AIDS, healthcare, and development issues in Africa, he served for five years as a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Public Health, one of the leading public health journals in the world and is also currently a Contributing Editor to both the Worldpress.org and the USAfricaonline.org.Dr. Akukwe is a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, London, and a member of the New York Academy of Sciences.He is also a member of the board of directors of the Constituency for Africa (CFA), Washington, DC - a leading advocacy organization for Africa's development in the United States. He has equally served as an expert analyst on African issues for both the BBC's World News and the Voice of America's Africa programs. ... Read more

Book Description

In Malaria: Poverty, Race, and Public Health in the United States, Margaret Humphreys presents the first book-length account of the parasitic, insect-borne disease that has infected millions and influenced settlement patterns, economic development, and the quality of life at every level of American society, especially in the south.

Humphreys approaches malaria from three perspectives: the parasite's biological history, the medical response to it, and the patient's experience of the disease. It addresses numerous questions including how the parasite thrives and eventually becomes vulnerable, how professionals came to know about the parasite and learned how to fight them, and how people view the disease and came to the point where they could understand and support the struggle against it.

In addition Malaria: Poverty, Race, and Public Health in the United States argues that malaria control was central to the evolution of local and federal intervention in public health, and demonstrates the complex interaction between poverty, race, and geography in determining the fate of malaria.