Table of Contents 1
Cover
2
Preface to the Second Edition
3
1 The Nature of Plagues
Living Off Others
Plagues and Parasites
Predicting Plagues
A Measles Outbreak
The Evolution of Plagues
4
2 Plagues, the Price of Being Sedentary
Becoming Human, Becoming Parasitized
The Road to Plagues: More Humans, More Disease
The Effect of Agriculture
The Lethal Gifts of Agriculture
The Accident That Caused Societal Differences
5
3 Six Plagues of Antiquity
The Pharaohs’ Plague
The Plague of Athens
The Roman Fever
Plagues and the Rise of Christianity
The Antonine Plague
The Cyprian Plague
The Justinian Plague
6
4 An Ancient Plague, the Black Death
A Look Back
Public Health
Discrimination
Church
Medicine
Education
Economy and Social Order
Finding the Killer
Finding the Vector
The Disease of Plague
The Plague-Causing Bacterium, Yersinia pestis
Plague Today
Vaccines
Coda
7
5 A 21st Century Plague, AIDS
A Look Back
HIV Discovered
The Genes of HIV
HIV Targets Immune Cells
HIV and AIDS
Failure To Control by Antibody or Vaccine
AZT, the First Antiretroviral Drug
Beyond AZT
“Catching” HIV
Control of AIDS
HIV and the African Connection
The Sooty Mangabey Connection: HIV-2
The Social Context of AIDS
8
6 Typhus, a Fever Plague
A Look Back
Typhus in People
Finding the Killer
A Lousy Business
Discrimination and Dissemination
Typhus and the “Immigrant Problem”
Typhus Today
Typhus Vaccine
Coda
9
7 Malaria, Another Fever Plague
A Look Back
The Disease Malaria
“Catching” Malaria
Malaria Today
Treatment
Prevention of Malaria
Genetic Resistance to Malaria: Sickle Cell Trait and Duffy Factor
The Elusive Malaria Vaccine
Coda
10
8 “King Cholera”
A Look Back
The Disease Cholera
Pandemic Cholera
Death by Dehydration
”Catching” Cholera
Controlling Cholera
Cholera, Sanitation, and Public Health