Six Modern Plagues

Mad cow disease, HIV/AIDS, Lyme disease, West Nile virus, Hantavirus, Salmonella DT104 -- these terrifying diseases have emerged in recent years, threatening human health and challenging medical authorities. They are also the diseases that Mark Jerome Walters brilliantly uses to spotlight the connections between new epidemics and human changes to the natural environment. Now with updated discussions of both SARS and bird flu, Six Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them not only reveals the fascinating human story behind each of these "eco-demics," but also hints at the steps that must be taken to slow their spread. Book jacket.

Trained in journalism and veterinary medicine, Mark Jerome Walters is a professor of journalism at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg