Secret Agents: The Menace of Emerging Infections

As a neophyte in the understanding of bacteria and infectious desease I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Knowing how fine a line we walk in our symbiotic relationship with bacteria is as frightening as it is fascinating. I belive this book should be required reading in schools.

The battle between humans and disease-causing microorganisms is not a fair fight. Bacteria, for instance, have been around for a billion or so years more than we have. They are intricately involved in every part of our outer world and our innards. No one has come close to listing all the microbes we carry around inside us even when we are healthy, but medical journalist Madeline Drexler, in _Secret Agents: The Menace of Emerging Infections_ (Joseph Henry Press) reports that we are "walking petri dishes" to keep our bacteria and viruses going. She begins her detailed and frightening book: "Infection is an inescapable part of life. All creatures feast on other creatures and in turn are feasted upon, in a kind of Escheresque food chain. When humans are the meal, we call it infectious disease." Infections have always been our lot, but there are, in the twenty-first century, new ways for them to be particularly worrisome, and Drexler's fine book ought to be required reading for citizens and public leaders the world over.The examples Drexler gives of disasters and near-disasters are chilling. Microbes never had it so good. They profit, for example, by the way the world can now share its food supply, enabling bizarre accidents to happen. A vandal shoots up the water chlorination system of his Mexican village, and causes (via parsley) food poisoning in hundreds of Minnesotans. Alfalfa sprouts, beloved by vegetarians, are grown in heat and moisture just right for salmonella from the Netherlands. You no longer have to travel to get traveler's diarrhea; it will visit you at home, and maybe it will be fatal. Not only are microbes jetting around the world (and not just on food, of course, but also in infected humans), but they are simply outsmarting our ability to kill them. Microorganisms are beating our antibiotics by the simple mechanisms of evolution. More patients are dying from infections that were easily curable thirty years ago. The next world flu is overdue, and because of speed of modern travel and older populations, it will have advantages that no others have ever had. Legionnaire's disease, tuberculosis, West Nile virus, bubonic plague, AIDS, and more all get their pages here. Then there is bioterrorism. There is reason for a good deal of pessimism.It would be wrong to assume that there is nothing but pessimism, though. Governments are going to have to have to stop putting their own citizens first and start thinking about doing the right thing for the world's humans. Drexler makes a clear case that the Bush administration's rejection of the Biological Weapons Convention (when all other nations had accepted it), because it threatened national security or the commercial secrets of the drug companies, encourages rogue states to work on their deadly brews. Bioterrorism aside, at least some nations and epidemiologists are recognizing that any nation's infection is the world's infection. Health authorities have, in the past, been ab

In "Secret Agents: The Menace of Emerging Infections," author Madeline Drexler takes us deep into the world of fast-moving microorganisms that can sicken people and end lives before doctors, hospitals or health agencies know what hit. Drexler shows "the bugs" at work in a well-chosen group of past and potential public health crises, including the West Nile virus's surprise hop across the Atlantic and the inevitable next influenza pandemic. With clarity and style, Drexler depicts in detail the characters in each drama: the amazingly adaptable bugs and the scientists and agency officials who must face them down. Meticulously researched, "Secret Agents" presents not only the scientific, but also the historic, political and economic contexts of approaching the seemingly intractable public health issues raised by the bugs. In the end, Drexler writes, such problems can only be addressed in a global context, in the interests of both rich and poor countries and the people who inhabit them. A fascinating read.

I've read several other books on this same sort of topic, including the seminal work by Laurie Garrett, The Coming Plauge. This new entry into the category of books devoted to germs is a genuine winner. I couldn't put this one down. There's no doubt that this stuff is scary. After reading "Secret Agents" you kind of figure that you shouldn't eat, drink, breathe, or go on too many picnics where you might come into contact with disease carrying insects. But the bottom line is that these frightening facts are not the stuff of some novelist's imagination -- this stuff is true. Which makes it even more disturbing -- and compelling -- to read. Even though bioterrorism is much on everyone's mind these days, Drexler reminds us that most of the diseases that would be weaponized and used against us are the creation of good old Mother Nature. And She's perfectly capable of packing a wallop all on her own. The writing is sharp and crisp, the germ-hunting stories fascinating. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good scientific detective story. If you enjoy it as much as I did, you'll end up finishing this in one sitting. P.S. Cool cover (catch that dead crow, the sentinel of doom that announces the presence of diseases like West Nile).

How can you not love a book that starts "Infection is an inescapable part of life. All creatures feast on other creatures and in turn are feasted upon, in a kind of Escheresque food chain."!! This is an amazing book that takes readers on a journey through the world of human encounters with "secret agents" of the micro-world: West Nile virus, food illnesses, resistant superbugs, flu, and, of course, bioterrorism.What I really liked about this book is that it is both a public health detective story, and a primer for the non-scientist on the shifting state of the "bugs and us" story. Drexler's writing is breathtaking, and you really feel as though you're right there in the labs and fields with the scientists and epidemiologists who are now -- especially now -- on the front lines of discovery and decisions about disease. This is a really smart book that's a must for anyone who's interested in the natural world, public health, scientific discovery, medical research. After 9/11, everyone's interested in bioterrorist weapons. Drexler puts the post-9/11 anthrax releases in context of military programs to develop super-bio-weapons .. and shows how the anthrax threat might be one of the biggest "blow-back" military threats yet.The last chapter, the author wraps up by making the case for the importance of global public health monitoring, cooperation, and she locates the role of disease and infection in contemporary geopolitics.This is hot off the press.. and hot! Easy to read, but packed with info. This book will open your eyes to the hidden "parallel-universe" world of microbes, bugs, viruses we travel with and through. Thoughtful, thought-provoking. A don't-miss read.