Influenza Books

I think that this story has been told before and been told better. I did not enjoy it.

The second book in Sharon Gilbert's Mytharc series reads like today's (and possibly even more frightening, tomorrow's) headlines. A flu pandemic as a catalyst for global government? A string of geneticists mysteriously dying like flies? If one didn't know Sharon had independently published this book in 2003 before it was optioned by Whitaker house this year, it would be easy to believe that a novel of such contemporary insights was written as a reflection of recent headlines. No wonder [...] once referred to Sharon as a prophetess.

One thing is certain. You'll never take a flu shot for granted again. Imagine germ warfare combining bird flu with Ebola that goes to work in minutes!

As The Armageddon Strain unfolds, Dr. Maggie Taylor's father, a genetic scientist, passes away under curious circumstances. While coping with his tragedy and drudging through the pains of her imminent divorce, two men, both with different agendas, enter her life. Simultaneously an avian flu sweeps the country, and the epidemic shows signs of jumping the species barrier. How will the government contain the situation? Special implantable microchips with biowarfare applications have been designed that will be injected into the masses under authority of Martial Law. Homeland Security begins the vaccinations, called Project BioShield, employing contractors BioStrain and Grayson Labs. Yet something strange is up with those little chips.

With this all-to-believable storyline in place, the author intersperses a fascinating high-level mix of education and entertainment, backing her assertions with copious research and thought-provoking questions told through a nail-biting action-adventure yarn that slowly questions the origins of the avian flu. Was it synthetically produced by a government cabal seeking to manipulate the modern world? A consortium of patriots believe this is true, and they arm themselves against the shadow government.

Yet what if something even more diabolical is occurring? Bodies start turning up that appear to be - for want of a better term - victims of Spontaneous Human Combustion. Has something unknown unleashed upon the world; an invisible influence seeking to conquer, to control, to ultimately change God's creation?

Behind the grotesque ballet of incomprehensible death, a police car's siren wails in sympathy as a pair of red eyes peer out from the netherworld, eagerly watching the raw pain of a crumbling world, and the spirit-creature behind the flaming eyes begins to laugh.

Thus begins The Armageddon Strain, a take-no-prisoners, edge-of-your-seat suspense thriller, filled with thought provoking dialogue about how science might be manipulated by evildoers of both the material and spirit world into concocting a prophetic invitation for end times totalitarianism.

Though a bit preachy in places and lulled with a few too many redundant cafe scenes, there's plenty here to keep the mind in high gear and the nerves on edge as the truly cyclonic novel unfolds.

Sharon Gilbert weaves a fast-paced story of conspiracy. I enjoyed her attention to detail and her writing style. I will be looking out for her next books. Way to go Sharon!

Thank you Dr. Greene

You explain it in lay peoples terms for everyone to understand. This is a good book. What you have done is good public service

Boy, what a complete joke this book is... one of the WORST purchases I have made in a long time. Buyer Beware: A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY!!!!!!!!!

I wholeheartedly recommend Dr. Jeffrey Greene's just published book, The Bird Flu Pandemic. Dr. Greene, a well respected physician, infectious disease specialist and teacher, writes with great clarity and in a most comprehensible style. He has the unique ability to present scientific material in a way that is both informative and readable. He addresses the various concerns and answers the many questions raised about this disease. As articles about Bird Flu are appearing almost daily in newspapers and periodicals, this book is most welcome.

Dr. Greene discusses the history of the influenza outbreaks of this century, with particular attention given to the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918. He writes of the Swine Flu scare of 1976 and the more recent SARS cases. He explains how much medical science has learned from these diseases and the importance of communication and planning in responding to a flu outbreak. He discusses the prevention and treatment of Bird Flu emphasizing the importance of developing a vaccine. He writes about Tamiflu, its' uses and limitations. This book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand or expand his or her knowledge of this most timely and pertinent topic.

This book is insightful but is not very well organized. Pauling jumps around from thought to thought in almost every chapter. The information is not outdated, but too many of his references are. So much so that it makes it unenjoyable to read. I wouldn't advise anyone purchase this book, here in the year 2000. I would go for one of his later books.

Vitamin C is so important for health that the vast majority of animals manufacture it daily in their bodies. This is why animals can live outdoors even in the winter without getting colds or most other illnesses. Being healthy is important to animals because if an animal gets sick it usually becomes eaten by a healthy animal. Only a few animals -- principally humanes, monkeys, and apes -- cannot manufacture vitamin C. The inability to manufacture vitamin C confines monkeys and apes to live in or near the tropics, where the weather is warm and edible fruits and vegetation is very rich in vitamin C and thus can supply their need for this essential nutrient. Outside the tropics they would get sick and die or be killed. When monkeys and apes are removed from the tropics to live in zoos or as pets, they are routinely fed a diet very rich in vitamin C in order to keep them healthy.

Humans also originated in the tropics and cannot manufacture vitamin C but -- unlike monkeys and apes -- most humans eventually migrated away from the vitamin C rich tropics and spread all over the world to places in which the food supply contains much less vitamin C than is needed to maintain our health. Thus, unlike other animals, we humans routinely get sick with colds and other illnesses which adequate vitamin C would protect us against. Only the invention and use of clothing, shelter, and weapons make it possible for humans to survive the illnesses caused by inadequate vitamin C which we routinely get. Humans are the only animals which routinely get sick and yet generally survive our illnesses. But why should we live with periodic bouts of illness? Why not protect ourselves by taking supplemental vitamin C? This is the argument presented in this outstanding book by the greatest chemist of the 20th century, Dr. Linus Pauling, the only person ever to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes. Please acquire and read this valuable book. If you follow Dr. Pauling's advice and take supplemental vitamin C daily, you will become healthier, may never have another cold, and should be able to survive the global flu pandemic which is predicted to occur soon.

the author of this book is the father of the orthomolecular-medicine is revealing the vitamin c to the public attention,and explain the mechanism of how this vitamin is strenghening the immune system,while continuing of strenghening all of the other parts of the human organism.pauling is also talking about the comparison of vitamin c to conventional-drugs.pauling also explain in this book how the vitamin work in other diseases in the human body.the history of the discovery of the vitamin and the effect on scurvy is also explained in this very interesting book, and the findings of two other vitamin c pionneering researches like:irwin-stone, and albert szent gyorgy are also explained in this very educative-must book.

Karen's School was not great.Because her husband Ricky gets sick.He came home sick with a 101 fever of course,Karen gets sick after Ricky.It's okay all right.

karen's whole class gets sick before the big class trip, if there was a serious bug going around it would have been smart to quarantine the whole class or school instead, the whole class gets sick, but then on the day of the trip everyone is well except one student(not karen!) my favourite part was how they made plasticine animals in class and how they were on display at the zoo.

this is a book that both benefits and suffers from extensive research. It is entirely undigested and frequently wrong on the facts. While the writing is good during the telling of each anecdote, the failure to develop any characters or for that matter a plot quickly makes reading tedious. A shame, because there is a lot of first-rate raw material here. The author just doesn't evaluate it critically, or tie any of it together.

Collier's work is one of the finest examples of what good historical narrative can be. He uses historical information to write history in an engaging and interesting manner. Collier's work is one of the definitive works on the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919. Critics of this book will probably say the same things critics of Herodotus said. Collier does lack statistics, numbers and charts that people have come to associate with history, but makes up for it in his narrative.

This is a superb companion to Alfred Crosby's work on the Influenza Pandemic. Collier's focus is more global and excludes the American experience while Crosby focuses almost solely on the American experience. Collier writes in the style of Herodotus while Crosby's leanings are more to a Thucydidian style of writing. One of the two books is bound to appeal to almost everybody. Reading both books, though, gives one a more comprehensive view of the event.

If academic history is not to your taste, read Iezzoni or Kolata's work on the subject. They borrow heavily from Collier and Crosby, but write with a more public audience in mind.

This little book reads like a master's thesis dressed up with longer chapters and fatter bibliography to get past a sleepy doctoral committee. "Media" is something of an overstatement. Although the author does use other sources very sparingly, this book is supported essentially by material taken from the New York Times. As secondary source material for a study of the Times editorial policy, it might have considerable merit. As an adjunct to the study of public health policy it is less successful. The author can write, I hope the next subject is more fruitful.

I am a full time Mechanical Engineer, father and grad student going for my Master's degree. I don't have alot of time on front of a fireplace to read. When I bought this book I wanted a rundown of the pandemic and history involved. This book delivers that but I had to weed it out painstakingly. This book mostly gives biographies of the scientists and pathologists who researched the virus with a bit of info given on the actual subject of the book weaved into it. I constantly found myself skipping dozens of pages to get the the subject of the book. This one may end up on Ebay for whatever I can get for it.

Forget this over-blown newspaper story that does not really talk about either influenza as a disease or events of 1918 at all.

Buy "The Great Influenza" instead, which does both, and more. Or Crosby's book.

In 1918 the Great Flu Epidemic killed 40 million people worldwide. More Amer. soldiers were killed by the 1918 flu than were killed in battle during WW1. And no area of the globe was safe. The percentage of Amer. who died is comparable to 1.5 million Amer. today. Scientists have recently discovered shards of the flu virus in human remains frozen in the Arctic tundra & in scraps of tissues preserved in a gov't. warehouse. Kolata tracks the race to recover the live pathogen & probes the fear that has impelled gov't. policy. She delves into the history of the flu & previous epidemics, profiles the experts hot on the trail & the misguided amateurs, & details the science of this mortal disease. Illus

There are a few good photos of chicken pox blisters in here, but not very much information for children about the disease. The book has a feeling of being quickly slapped together. Pages of children at the beach or roller blading are just filler. This book lacks a cohesive narrative. There is better on the market.

Contains basic material from CDC, NIH, WHO, etc., all of which is taken from the web with little to no specificity toward Avian Influenza; no deep coverage. Use your favorite search engine, you'll be glad you did.