Infectious-Diseases Books

Dr. Daniel Wallace is my lupus doctor and has been for many years. This book talks about everything important about dealing, having and living with lupus. He is an amazing doctor and writer!

This book is good but VERY technical...Good thing I am a nurse...I gave it to some of my family to read and they truly could not understand a lot of the book. It is great information but make sure you have a medical dictionary handy if you aren't familiar with medical terminology.

I bought this b/c I thought a relative had lupus. While she does not, I am still keeping the book b/c it is a wealth of information on all types of arthritic diseases, the origins of the disease, symptoms, various treatments and what to expect from the treatments. I am keeping this as a great medical reference book !

And trust me, I've read them all. The only thing is - if you have ZERO background whatsoever on this disease, or in science in general, don't start with this book. Instead, start with one of the more general, introductory books like "living with lupus" or "lupus q and a" to just get a background because this is one heavy-duty book, laden with science that is very thorough, comprehensive, and sometimes complicated. It's amazing though, and a must-read. I'm VERY happy this exists.

I have been struggling with autoimmune diseases with them potentially evolving into Lupus. This book has been helping me get through some really tough times. It also has helped to be able to talk to doctors with a clearer understanding of this disorder. I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and this book along with Dr. Wallace's fibromyalgia book have really put things in perspective for me. I have read many books on the subject and this book by far is the best!

Finally, a book that tells the truth about the devastating effects of Lyme Disease. She covers the medical, as well as the political repercussions of this disabling and sometimes deadly disease.

For anyone who really wants to know the truth about why Lyme Disease is being allowed to destroy and end lives, this is a MUST read.

I am so grateful to Pam Weintraub for taking the time and energy to write this provocative, disturbing and informative book. I only hope that it catches the eyes of those who can help find an answer to the Lyme nightmare. Whatever anyone can do to get the word out is good. I think it's our only hope.

I highly highly recommend this book. After reading this book I now understand how Lyme disease has become so political. I am greatfull to the author for bringing attention to these issues. Hopefully this book will break down some of the walls around Lyme disease and make it easier for patients to get diagnosed and find proper treatment.

This book was incredibly helpful in understanding Lyme history. To answer the question of why doctors debate over this. Because of this book, I knew what to do to help my daughter. So far, my daughter is recovering beautifully. The book was very compelling and well written, always a help when you are studying a meaty topic.

Cure Unkown is chock full of vital information about Lyme Disease. But I found the formatting difficult to follow; it leapt from the middle of one case study to the beginning of another, going back to finish one anecdote after several unrelated chapters. This made it hard to keep the individual cases and patients straight, I eventually made myself a note card to keep track of the different sets of interviewees and their backgrounds. Still, the book contained a great deal of useful information, I just wish it had been easier to keep track of.

Excellent--well written--an easy read. This book affirms what I see clinically every day, now I can be a better support system for my patients.

I was recently diagnosed with post-polio syndrome. Immediately, I started seeking out information on this health issue. Without question, this is the best book on this subject. I am so pleased to have read this book to assist me.

This book answered many questions we have had. It is very clear and informative. I plan on giving a copy to my family doctor so we can improve my health care. The author truly understands what former polio suffers experience years later.

This book is very enlightening for anyone who has had polio and their extended family and friends. People who have had polio (and other diseases that affect muscles) need to understand that the traditional approach of "use it or lose it" is detrimental....they need to take a "conserve to preserve" approach to life activities. This requires a change in mind set....which, of course, is the hardest thing for these Type A personalities to accomplsh.

I am a polio survivor, having had both bulbar and spinal polio at age 10. I am one of the fortunate who learned to walk again and seemed to overcome many residuals. Like many polio survivors, I am someone who has refused to acknowledge that something is impossible - I rarely give up, and this quality enabled me to endure all the physical therapy that resulted in what passed for recovery. I have a trach scar, weakness in my right leg, left arm and a gradual onset of back pain and fatigue. I have had a post-polio assessment, but wasn't certain until reading this book that I should be resting more than overdoing exercise. I feel so incredibly lucky when I see the many who are back in wheelchairs - brings the whole nightmare of the iron lung, the rocking bed, the tube from my nose to my stomach for sustenance, the suctioning of the trach tube, etc., etc. I hope that everyone who has suffered will read this book and gain a better quality of life.

This book was recommended as a gift to a pre-med student. She was excited to receive this as it dove-tailed with a course she is currently taking.

This book is amazing! I love it and recommend it to my friends. The author formerly wrote for a New York magazine, and his stories cover decades. It is interesting to see how some diseases such as Lyme's first became known and how the tools available to the medical profession have both changed and some have remained the same. Read it, you will love it!

I was given this book by one of the epidemiologists that was featured in the book. He had great respect for Roueche and loves his articles. I think these stories a very well written and really hold your attention. They also give you a good history of diseases and conditions. Great book!

Berton Roueché wrote for the "New Yorker" magazine for almost half a century, and was winner of the 1950 Albert Lasker Medical Journalism Award. His many volumes on physicians and medical detectives, including this book, were collected from his articles in the "New Yorker."

"The Medical Detectives" volume II is great bedtime reading, because the good guys, i.e. physicians and epidemiologists always get their villain (whether it's a germ, poison gas, or a disgruntled boyfriend). Volume II's twenty-three case histories date from 1947 to 1984, before the days when Big Insurance dictated how long patients would stay in hospitals and what kind of treatment they would receive. Some of the doctors in this book actually made house calls! A couple of the cases really stayed with me, because the patients were kept in the hospital for weeks at a time just to track down a diagnosis. In one case, a man had the hiccups. In the other, a woman had a headache. Can you guess what would happen to these patients if they went to an emergency room, today?

Anyone who is interested in medical detection will be both engrossed and instructed by Roueché's careful, detailed true-life mysteries. The cases contained in this volume range from the man who hiccupped for 27 years through the deliberate poisoning of a family. One of my favorites from 1948 is called, "The Fog". This does not refer to John Carpenter's famous 1980 horror movie, but a true story that is in some ways even more frightening than anything Hollywood could produce. It takes place in Donora, Pennsylvania, a gritty mill town along the Monongahela River, which is infamous for its fogs: "They are greasy, gagging fogs, often intact even at high noon, and they sometimes last for two or three days."

The Donora `Death Fog' killed 20 people and left hundreds injured and gasping for breath. Roueché tells this story of America's worst air pollution disaster through the observations of eye-witnesses, one of them a physician. London usually comes to mind when Death comes stalking through a thick fog, but this story is every bit as atmospheric as one by A. Conan Doyle, and "The Fog's" detectives are real people.

This collection of true medical stories starts off a bit slowly, but you will end up wishing for Volume III.

This "classic collection of award-winning medical investigative reporting", published in 1988, is an excellent book. Each of the 25 case studies originally appeared as an "Annals of medicine" piece in the New Yorker, and there's not a dud in the bunch.

Most of the cases happened in the 1950's or 1960's, when sophisticated, CSI-era analytical techniques were unavailable. Nonetheless, there is no sense that these stories are dated. Roueche is a natural storyteller and has the rare ability to present technical aspects in a way that is intelligible to the non-expert reader, at just the right level of detail.

It's like 25 "House" episodes, but without the gratuitous obnoxiousness, condescension to the reader, or the ridiculous constraint that only a limping, misanthropic painkiller addict can be right.

Just like an accident, if you don't know the risk, you are bound to get hurt. This book tells everyone about the risks, either past or present, in vaccines. These blunders have not been dealt with by government or industry due to the economic impact that any correction might have. They (government and industry) want to scare you into vaccinating for everything because if you don't you'll get sick. Everybody please panic, so that the vaccine producers make plenty of money. Why is it that if Polio has been eradicated in the US are there still polio cases among those who have been vaccinated. How can a monkey kidney virus cause cancer in humans and why was such a dirty animal's kidney chosen as a substrate for vaccine production.
This is a must read for anybody who thinks that vaccine production and development is as sound and safe as the interpretation of the bible by religious zealot. If you are going to invest your faith in anything, invest it in yourself and read this book. If not, wait for the movie . . . because it reads like a medical industrial espionage thriller.

If you enjoyed reading this book, I suggest you also read The River, by Edward Hooper. Hoopers book posits a similar Frankensteinesque consequence of the race for a polio vaccine: the emergence of HIV in central Africa resulting from a batch of experimental polio vaccine, created in Zaire, using infected monkey kidneys.

This book shows just how much the corporations and even our own government do not care about you or me, they care about continuing their domination of our lives and making money.

I've likely had the polio shot that is described in this book, and you probably have too, it was around for four DECADES.

My mother fell into the years where the first horrible joke of a vaccine was first introduced in the United States by Jonas Salk, and she died from ALS in 1995. Maybe there is no connection, Lord knows there are other toxins in our world that could have been responsible, but was it their right to continue to vaccinate us with trash viruses from monkey kidneys? Is this the US or Hitler's Germany?

This book is meticulously researched and written. It's the one book I've run across on vaccines that none of the "pro-vaccine" people I've talked to have been able to debunk.

If you haven't already read this book, do so. It's scary, but I would rather know than not know.

And these are some of the same type of corporations currently pushing for legislation for the HPV vaccine to be mandatory - I don't trust them, do you?

Someone remarked in a previous review that this was a horrible mistake -- no, it wasn't. A mistake is when you shut your finger in the door and then realize how and why you did it, so that it doesn't happen again. This was calculated crime, in my opinion, by the "powers that are" on millions of Americans. They knew it was there [SV40] and they made choices to leave it there. What other viruses are in there that no one has found, or even bothered to look for?

The other reviews have more than expressed the high level of journalism these authors have attained. Suffice it to say they should be inundated with movie offers by now. This is indeed the most compelling read in a very long time.
It is appalling to know just how reckless (and criminal) the vaccine programs really are and how deep the disregard for the public health. I promptly sent "Virus and the Vaccine" to a friend who is a top cancer specialist, to get an outside opinion. He too was blown away, horrified and found the book a powerful read. If your here and wondering if you should get this book..YES READ THIS BOOK. You will not regret it.
It is my opinion that the authors have done a great service to this country (and humanity) by dedicating their talents and time to uncovering this outrageous tale of woe. A Nobel Prize might just be in order! I am buying this book in lots, and sending copies to the most influential people I know (and my family). Bravo! S.A. Sarnoff, Founder & Pres. Health Advocacy in the Public Interest, Santa Barbara CA

This book is a frightening expose of the potential damage done to millions of unsuspecting Americans who were receiptents of polio vaccines that may have been carelessly contaminated with monkey virus that somehow eluded the best intended manufacturing processes of that day.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning for themselves whether vaccines may have caused more harm than good over decades of use. Let us hope the authors are wrong, because if they are right, the harm done will be uncomprehensible.

This book should convince you of a new paradigm. We do not live in a world of bacteria that are trying to invade and kill us. We live in a an self-made environment of bacteria that have a stake in our survival, and that protect us from potentially harmful disease. Our use and overuse of antibiotics is changing our individual bacterial ecosystems for the worse, hence the rise of multiply-drug-resistant microorganisms.

Sachs illustrates all this with entertaining clarity, then goes on to describe how current scientists are taking legions of bacteria, putting them through the equivalent of a bacterial Olympics, and deploying the winners to restore a healthful personal ecosystem that can rid us of certain illnesses.

I am a physician with over thirty years in practice. I read and then reviewed and annotated this book, and am writing a newsletter to my patients about it. I think every person, physician or not, will enjoy and learn from this excellent book.

This is a fascinating book. Sachs manages to be understandable to the general reader, while getting deeply into the science in selected chapters. At times I was a bit confused, but I believe that is primarily due to the gaps in scientific knowledge and some results that are inconsistent at this point; e.g., on how quickly bacteria populations lose genes for resistance when the genes are no longer serving a function. Sachs does say that a promising nasal spray using protective bacteria was abandoned for lack of commercial potential, since any patent could easily be circumvented; but, if competitors tweaked the formula, they would also have to invest the time and money to get FDA approval. I also am wondering why no one is developing a protective biofilm for metal orthopedic implants to prevent infection.

From Nov 08 Plant Physiology: When the plant's leaves were infected with a disease-causing type of bacteria, its roots responded by secreting malic acid - a substance that in turn attracted a different, protective form of bacteria from the surrounding soil. Those helpful bacteria formed a beneficial biofilm on the roots, and they also stimulated the plants' immune response.

-------------------------Summary--------------------------

The "good" bacteria populating humans are important for survival. They protect against the growth of harmful bacteria and virus, which is one reason health care workers tend not to get sick even when they pick up destructive bacteria (and go on to infect patients who may have lost their good bacteria due to antibiotics). Bacteria are also important to digestion; they break down certain foods, and also signal human cells to release enzymes necessary for digestion.

Their relationship to the immune system is complex and not fully understood. What is clear is that exposure to good bacteria is necessary to train the immune system, so that babies born by Cesarian have twice the food allergies that other babies have, because they don't pick up some of the good bacteria from their mothers during birth. There are Peyer's patches, lining the small intestine, which are comparable in structure to lymph nodes, but serve to prevent attacks against good bacteria, so long as they don't end up in the wrong place such as the bloodstream. In fact, there are many good or at least harmless bacteria that can become virulent if in the wrong place, or if they reach a dangerous density: bacteria use a sensing mechanism that can result in changes in their behavior when they reach a large enough density.

Bacteria have a number of mechanisms for picking up genes from other bacteria, so that they develop resistance to antibiotics relatively quickly. Despite trying different approaches, no one has succeeded in developing a method of attack which does not eventually induce resistance. Use of protective bacteria may therefore be our only hope, although new technology may improve the efficacy of vaccines. In the nearer term, minimizing use of antibiotics in humans and animals is the best hope for prolonging antibiotic usefulness, and in fact sometimes older antibiotics, which are only used sparingly, may become effective for a while again. Currently, dangerously resistant bacteria which had once only caused death and serious illness in the hospital setting, are increasingly becoming a problem in the community. Incidentally, Europe is way ahead of the US in taking steps to decrease bacterial resistance.

This book is a good read for those interested in a light history of how scientists came to understand some of the more well-known bacteria that affect us. It also provides a glimpse into the lives of those affected by bacterial infections.

Good/Bad germs may be the Silent Spring of this time. Not only does it read like a page turner, it explains the human-microbe and microbe-microbe interrelationships in a thoroughly understandable way, by a writer who clearly understands the subjects.
The author fleshes out the facts nicely with sketches illuminating the people and proses of discovery.
This book is critical reading for anyone who has a body.
I bought copies for my friends where a recommendation is not enough.

I read the original 2007 hardcover. It is a gripping account of the relationship between bacteria and humans, from parasitic disease makers to necessary commensals. You will find in very clear and plain English much you need to know about the right balance of cleanliness, allergies and other autoimmune diseases, antibiotic treatment of livestock, resistance swapping of bacteria from the most different species and even cancer cure potentials via bacteria. (I do hope though, that this will not end in a I Am Legend (Widescreen Single-Disc Edition) scenario...)

This book by a freelance science writer is well-structured, starting with a shock introduction, giving a capturing ride on medical bacteria history, presenting the gloomy presence, then the potential solution on the horizon with various future perspectives. As some issues are pending till 2010, be sure to get the latest potential revision of this book.

Just two notes: By reading this book, one may get the impression that syphilis had been brought back to Europe via the "1492 discovery" of the Americas. This disease has been known well before in Europe, including evidence found in Pompeii. Also, if you hear or read about Florence Nightingale, please look up the original, but neglected Mary Seacole...

If you are interested in similar books, with little overlap, Riddled with Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Make Us Who We Are is the most close addition. If you are interested in our symbiotic body roomies (commensals), largely restricted to bacteria and in a systematic text book presentation, read the rather dry Microbial Inhabitants of Humans: Their Ecology and Role in Health and Disease. About former parasites, today our energy source and DNA family tree provider, mitochondria, read Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life. A more general biological approach of symbiosis is Liaisons of Life: From Hornworts to Hippos--How the Unassuming Microbe has Driven Evolution. A theoretic re-thinking, including reconstructing taxonomy and theories about gaia, read Symbiotic Planet: A New Look At Evolution. More, but not exclusively, on the yuk side is Parasite Rex : Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures with some disturbing pictures. An entire coffee-table book is Human Wildlife: The Life That Lives on Us, if you are not too squeamish...

The only reason I bought this book was that the money went to a Louis and Clark outpost along the L & C trail. Where along the trail, I can't say. All I remember was the lady there was nice and said this was an interesting book. A book written by a doctor--from a medical point of view--who was a Lewis and Clark fan. In this day and time, if you find someone who takes an interest in their job and customers, be nice to them. They are a rare breed indeed. All I'm going to say about the book is that it was a real find; it'll make a welcome addition to any library.

Physician Peck writes a well-written lively account, in an almost conversational method wrought with humor, of the adventures of the Corps of Discovery and the medical obstacles they encountered along with the medical practices utilized by the good captains. Peck provides a background of medical practices that were practiced in that day as well as a brief summation of how medicine was practiced from the ages up through the early 1800s, that latter being in an appendix. As Peck states quite clearly, Lewis is armed with limited medical knowledge from a two-week crash-training course from the eminent physician at that time, Dr. Rush. As Peck points out, limited knowledge may have been the best since such familiar practices of bleed and purging the stomach were thought as primary cures at that time. Peck provides an excellent detailed history of the adventure while analyzing in friendly to the reader detail, the symptoms of the members and Native American injuries and illnesses that Lewis and Clark treated along their journey. Everything from stomach illnesses caused by under cooked game to bacteria and protozoa that may inhabit the water they drank from. What is truly amazing, with exposure to mosquitoes and possible yellow fever, frostbite, hypothermia, snake bites, back ailments, eye injuries and ghastly wounds including Lewis' shot in the buttocks by their near sighted fiddler, they all survive. They suffer only one casualty and that is in the early goings, Sergeant Floyd who appears to have died from an appendicitis that may have been connected to complications caused by parasites. With the use of opiates for pain, the Captains may have provided comfort while treating patients who fortunately survive treatments that may actually have made them worse. However, a lot of the Captains commons sense treatments were successful, particularly among the Indians where Captain Clark's reputation as a man of great medicine helped the corps survive as they received rations that helped them exist while on their return journey. Peck's humor is evident as he describes an illness that pursues the corps along their journey as an unwelcomed guest and while using the term of that period for the illness, it takes one a few paragraphs to catch on. In addition, young Shannon seems to be always getting lost or losing something and Peck notes that he may have been a good candidate for riddlin. Peck also offers a chapter that discusses what became of the members after their return with an excellent analysis of the arguments surrounding Lewis' death. Many argue that it was syphilis related or depression, Peck offers the latter noting that physicians that treat themselves make gross errors. Peck also includes an anatomy diagram of Lewis' possible wounds and a glossary of 1800 medical terms and treatments. I would have liked a little more detail on Lewis' state of mind as he performed at high levels but during periods of stress seemed to possess a mercurial temperament that could explode at times. As Peck notes, one Indian that was teasing the corps about their dog preference eating habits picked the wrong guy to throw a puppy at almost resulting in his death. All the explanation of medical ailments and treatments are compared to today's standards in layman's terms. After reading this book, I will always order my meat well done and even more fervently wash my hands after handling anything.

"Or Perish in the Attempt: Wilderness Medicine in the Lewis and Clark Expedition" brings the journey of exploration through the Louisiana purchase vibrantly alive. Dr. Peck's writing is easy-to-read, yet technically thorough, examining the 1803-1805 expedition through his perspective as a medical doctor.

He begins by assessing the state of medical knowledge of the time, and explains the initial provisioning for the mission in Philadelphia. It was fascinating to learn which treatments were beneficial (Peruvian bark, opium and laudanum, for example), and which ones are now known to be harmful (blood-letting, immersion in cold water for frostbite). As he explains incidents requiring medical intervention, we are treated to wistful musings of how much value a modern technique or product would have been, such as a simple bottle of antisceptic eye drops for snow blindness or corneal irritation. The descriptions of how the men must have reacted to the proposed treatments for venereal diseases are hilarious.

The social aspects of the book are also well-detailed. No one's contribution is left out, from the "black white man", York, to Sacajawea, the Shoshone wife of the Frenchman Toussaint Charbonneau who acted as guide, food finder and interpreter. The beautifully written chapters make it clear that it took the strength and talents of every member of the team to cross mountain ranges, fight bears and hostile tribes, obtain food and shelter, document species, peoples and geography. And return safely, with only one exception, harboring vivid memories of having made it through rain, snow, hail, water swimming with gut-busting bacteria, malaria, injuries, spoiled meat, and the original "Low Carbohydrate Diet of the Plains." The fact that they brought the mission off successfully was due to luck, as the author points out. But also important were their abilities to adapt, endure hardships together, and devise on-the-spot medical solutions (which the men managed somehow to survive!) This new American classic makes a fascinating read - an excellent gift that you will want to read yourself, too.

To say that Dr. Peck has given light to another side of the journey of the Corp isn't enough; this is more than a fresh perspective. Or Perish in the Attempt earns its place among the great books about this journey of the Corp of Discovery. While reading this book the reader will feel the dust on the trail, the sweat from a day in the canoe, the fear of facing down a grizzly, and the curiosity as Lewis and Clark disperse liberal doses of "Thunderclappers." Dr. Peck has given us a well researched account of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and taught us crucial lessons in wilderness medicine at the beginning of the 19th century. I can't wait to go back to these dog-eared pages and retrace the steps again. Thank you for the well written book, thank you for the medical insights with the explanation that I can understand, and thank you for bringing these stories to light.

To say that Dr. Peck has given light to another side of the journey of the Corp isn't enough; this is more than a fresh perspective. Or Perish in the Attempt earns its place among the great books about this journey of the Corp of Discovery. While reading this book the reader will feel the dust on the trail, the sweat from a day in the canoe, the fear of facing down a grizzly, and the curiosity as Lewis and Clark disperse liberal doses of "Thunderclappers." Dr. Peck has given us a well researched account of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and taught us crucial lessons in wilderness medicine at the beginning of the 19th century. I can't wait to go back to these dog-eared pages and retrace the steps again. Thank you for the well written book, thank you for the medical insights with the explanation that I can understand, and thank you for bringing these stories to light.

It's been a good reference so far and will definitely help with real cases when I'm finally out of school.

I'm a veterinary medicine student & I found this book very useful! it's worth buying it!

If you are a veterinarian and don't have this book, get it! Great client education handouts on cd included.

This book is awesome! Does not go indepth, but has ALL the pertinent information related to specific diseases/clinical signs (definitions, Physiology, symptoms, lab work, treatment, follow up care)all on one page! A VERY useful book so far, especially from a tech's point of view!

Just replaced my 3rd edition, the 4th addition is a bit better has some new information, doseages for new drugs and a CD with Client education handouts.

I have never heard any of this information any where. This book is a must read. There is enough information here that makes a strong connection between calcium deposits, nanobacteria, and heart disease.

They do a great job in translating the terms for non medical people. Additionally, I would say that the relationship between the information presented and cancer represented about small percentage of the book, but the linkage is important and worth considering nevertheless.

I just finished reading an extraordinary book, The Calcium Bomb: The Nanobacteria Link to Heart Disease and Cancer. It also explains for the first time, the possible etiology and outline for a real treatment of my own ailment (which I know quite a bit about) ankloysing spondylitis. This is a work of excellent investigative scholarship and if its basic premise is true, namely that nanobacteria create calcium shells to protect themselves and can only be killed once they are unsheathed, then it may be one of the most important health books ever written. The relationship between nanobacteria and atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis is portrayed convincingly.

An interesting read on health but is it fact or fiction? Pretty scary if true as it is not main stream.

The book discusses how a newly discovered microorganism, nanobacteria, are responsible for the plaque that accumulates within our tissues as we age. Plaque buildup is what causes heart disease, and other circulatory issues. Beyond that it describes how the use of EDTA suppositories and the antibiotic tetracycline have been used remove plaque from arteries and restore health to many who would certainly die without this therapy.
There is some controversy in that nanobacteria are not currently scientifically accepted as being living organisms, and that they are not accepted as the cause of arterial plaque formation. The authors give compelling evidence that they are organisms and they do cause plaque formation. Beyond the scientific argument about nanobacteria, there is no debate that arterial plaque and calcification are major contributors to heart disease, and that EDTA chelation therapy can remove this plaque in many people. The book gives numerous examples of those who have been saved from this therapy, and it provides references to where this therapy can be obtained.
It does downplay the effectiveness of oral EDTA chelation, and it highly recommends the use of tetracycline. In that, it seems to favor a therapeutic regimen that is currently available through only one source, and at a premium price. I am trying to give useful information here rather than a simple review. I have researched this to quite an extent and believe that oral EDTA chelation is fairly effective, it is much easier to take, and it is a lot cheaper than the suppositories they recommend. Beyond that garlic and curcumin, are very safe and effective herbs that offer some anti-plaque benefits.
This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is very thoroughly researched and referenced. Currently the web site www.calcify.com simply displays a message stating that the authors are working on an updated version of the book. I will certainly buy it as soon as it's available. I am disappointed that this book is already out of print and that currently it is selling for such a premium price. If you suffer from life threatening heart disease then by all means buy it, it will be worth every penny to you. If you have more of a scientific interest then you may wish to wait for the updated version or research EDTA chelation therapy on the web.
I would prefer that the future version of the book focus more on methods of removing plaque from the body and less on the scientific debate over nanobacteria.

This book is the natural complement to "Calcification: the Aging Factor," by Mark Mayer. While these books are on the same subject, they are both very different in content. The Calcium Bomb is about nanobacteria; while "Calcification: the Aging Factor" talks about other factors that can contribute to calcifications.

This book is a perfect storm of readability. Greenfeld approaches the virus like a murder mystery, hunting it down with his narratives of scientists and doctors looking for clues, and the exotic settings of China and Hong Kong draw you in. It's informative, well researched and covers every level of the SARS story, from meetings in Beijing to the daily lives of doomed apartment-dwellers in Hong Kong highrises. I read it in five days, and it's 400 pages. I would recommend it for anyone remotely interested in virus outbreaks, which should be all of us. Great book!

This is a very interesting look at the outbreak of SARS, told in a journalistic narrative voice by the editor of Asia's Time Magazine. It takes you through the eyes of many of the doctors and victims involved, and gives a strong sense of the feel of the time, the various cover ups, and how the discoveries unfolded. A quick and interesting read.

A fiesta for infomaniacs. Fascinating microbiology, world history, and an especially nice introduction to China today.

Favorite vignette: Q: Is it possible SARS can be transferred from humans to livestock?

A: You will be held accountable for your words!

My wife read this book first and urged me to do so. I'm glad I did. As a non scientist, I found Greenfeld's writing and analysis very understandable and riveting. From patient zero, a chop shop employee in one of Hong Kong's teeming "Wild Flavor" eateries, to the pursuit of patients in the steppe of China's rural areas, he has put together a concise and chilling treatise on how fragile life in this world can be, and make you wonder when another killer virus will emerge. I recommend this book to every infectious disease specialist out there and any lay person who wants a great summary on the killers that are waiting for their genetic lottery tickets to get punched.

Karl Taro Greenfeld (KTG) in his book follows the SARS virus from its early beginnings in Guangdong Province (China) in late 2002 right to its end during 2003. He starts off with the rumours flying around Guangdong in late 2002 and then follows the virus around to wherever it goes. He also covers the science effort to identify it and the efforts to contain it.

KTG calls SARS the first pandemic of the 21st century. Perhaps it should be called the first pandemic which didn't happen. The figures of infected people and casualties he quotes at the beginning of each chapter are an approximation only as KTG admits at the end of the book and I can well believe that because when you read about the virus's impact on China you would think that the casualty figures should be higher.

China comes out badly in all this. As official policy dictates that the virus does not exist, it does not exist and therefore it spreads virtually unhindered until official policy changes, which eventually it did. But guess how many lives could have been saved if official policy had changed faster or if it hadn't been formulated in the first place. When you read KTG's bit on how China works you can see that it will happen again. That's the terrifying bit I took home from reading this book. Imagine a virus that outpaces the speed at which bureaucracy moves. We could be all dead by the time they make up their minds.