From the masters of storytelling-meets-science and co-authors of Quackery, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks-how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us.
Written in the authors' lively and accessible style, chapters include page-turning medical stories about a particular disease or virus-smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio, HIV-that combine "Patient Zero" narratives, or the human stories behind outbreaks, with historical examinations of missteps, milestones, scientific theories, and more.
Learn the tragic stories of Patient Zeros throughout history, such as Mabalo Lokela, who contracted Ebola while on vacation in 1976, and the Lewis Baby on London's Broad Street, the first to catch cholera in an 1854 outbreak that led to a major medical breakthrough. Interspersed are origin stories of a different sort-how a rye fungus in 1951 turned a small village in France into a phantasmagoric scene reminiscent of Burning Man. Plus the uneasy history of human autopsy, how the HIV virus has been with us for at least a century, and more. How did it start? Why did it spread? How do we stop it?
Packed with one thrilling medical mystery after another, Patient Zero tells the curious story of 21 of the world's worst diseases-including smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio, AIDS-by combining Patient Zero narratives with historical examinations of missteps, milestones, scientific theories, and more. Discover the tragic story of Zaire schoolteacher Mabalo Lokela, whose relaxing vacation resulted in him becoming Patient Zero of Ebola virus disease. How a rye fungus in 1951 turned a small village in France into a phantasmagoric scene reminiscent of Burning Man. And what the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic has to teach us about Covid-19. (Guess what: There was an anti-mask movement back then, too)
Lydia Kang, MD, is a practicing internal medicine physician and author of young adult fiction and adult fiction. Her YA novels include Control, Catalyst, and the upcoming The November Girl. Her adult fiction debut is entitled A Beautiful Poison. Her nonfiction has been published in JAMA, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Nate Pedersen is a librarian, historian, and freelance journalist with over 400 publications in print and online, including in the Guardian, the Believer, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Art of Manliness. PATIENT ZERO: A Curious History of the World's Most Deadly Diseases
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I: INFECTION
Patient Zero: Ergotism
Zoonoses: Making the Leap
Patient Zero: Ebola
Germ Theory: From Miasma to Microscopes
Patient Zero: Plague
Autopsy: From Humoral Theory to Grave Robbing
Patient Zero: Hep C
Anatomy of an Outbreak
Patient Zero: Covid-19
Quackery Cures
Patient Zero: Yellow Fever
Patient Zero: Mad Cow Disease
Part II: SPREAD
Patient Zero: HIV
Patient Zero: Typhus
Leprosy
Patient Zero: Typhoid Mary
Indigenous Peoples & the Columbian Exchange: The "Exchange" Was Not Equal
Patient Zero: Syphilis
Crypto Outbreak
Patient Zero: Measles
Part 3: CONTAINMENT
Patient Zero: 1918 Influenza
Vaccines: From Variolation to Messenger RNA
Patient Zero: Polio
Cancer-Disease Link
Patient Zero: Cholera
Anthrax & Biological Warfare: The Weaponization of Disease
Patient Zero: Rabies
Tuberculosis
Patient Zero: Last Smallpox case
Medical Advancements
Acknowledgments
Index
Credits
About the Authors
"[A] rich and thought-provoking book... It's also a profound reconsideration of our common understanding of our most famous stories of sickness and science."
-Salon.com
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