Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World's Most Dangerous DiseasePlague is the greatest killer in human history, though it has only emerged occasionally, most famously in Justinian Rome and medieval Europe.Normally, it moves sluggishly from animal reservoirs into human populations, and it shows little capacity for epidemic spread. Yet under the right circumstances, it is the single most dangerous germ on the planet.Orent reveals how Soviet scientists created genetically-altered forms of this terrible affliction, knowing exactly how to convert plague into a deadly weapon.She shows how scientists are still unable to defend against it, and how plague could be visited upon humanity again. |
Contents
Introduction I | 1 |
Return to Obolensk | 7 |
The Mystery of Plague | 31 |
The Winepress of God | 61 |
The Renaissance Plague | 141 |
VI | 173 |
The Enduring Threat | 209 |
Notes | 235 |
Acknowledgments | 265 |
Other editions - View all
Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World's Most ... Wendy Orent Limited preview - 2013 |
Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World's Most ... Wendy Orent No preview available - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
Alibek animals anthrax Anti-Plague antibiotics antigen Atshabar bacteria Baltazard began biological weapons Biopreparat bioweapons bioweapons program Black Death blood bodies Brubaker buboes bubonic plague cells Central Asia century cheopis China Chinese contagious corpses dead died of plague disease Domaradskij empire Europe fever Gage genes genetic gerbils ground squirrels Gui de Chauliac host houses human fleas Ibid Igor immune infection Justinian Justinian Plague Justinian's Plague killed laboratory lethal lives London lung Manchuria marmot marmot plague Mongol monic plague never Obolensk Personal communication pesthouse plague epidemics plague experts plague fighter plague germ plague outbreak plague researcher plague strains plasmids pneu pneumonic plague Pollitzer Popov population prairie dogs Procopius Pulex irritans quarantine rat flea rat-borne plague rodents Russian says scientists septicemic septicemic plague ships sick smallpox Soviet bioweapons spread Suleimenov Third Pandemic thousand tion town transmission tularemia unblocked fleas Urakov vaccine virulent Wu Lien-teh Yersin Yersinia pestis Zhdanov