Malaria Books

Fascinating and thoroughly researched book that explains a complex medical subject in words that are familiar to ordinary folk. The book is divided into two sections. The first part examines the impact of malaria on immune-naive people (soldiers in this book, but could as well be anybody in a malaria-free country, and the second part concentrates on how the military establishment has focused resources into understanding and controlling this global menance.

This book gives a comprehensive insight into how malaria has shaped our history - especially through effects on expeditions to malaria zones. It surely emerges from some serious investigative medical journalism that differentiates between the myths from reality about malaria. The book presents the medical, epidemiological and technical insights on the various historical accounts as if in an encyclopaedia and yet it still reads so easy as a novel. It would be an excellent surprise present for a veteran of one of the wars or someone travelling to any of the malaria zones, soldiers (particularly commanders and trainers), medics and paramedics, development workers, medical historians and epidemiologists. It is amazing to see how and why the military in some developed countries have lead medical advances! The book is all you will need to differentiate the myths from facts about malaria!

An incredible perception into a disease that threatens half the world's population. Although its major thrust is on highlighting the impact of malaria on military campaigns and vice versa, the seriousness of the disease in malaria endemic regions is not lost to the reader. Outside the depressing statistics, the book is written in a witty style that guarantees the reader remains generously entertained. And there is a wealth of historical anecdotes, for example: "If you mentioned the name Ferdinand de Lesseps in the latter part of the nineteenth century among those who understood what global economy was all about, you were bound to have heads turning. First to tell you that this was a brilliant man who had excavated the Suez Canal, and then to go on in subdued voices that he was probably the richest entrepreneur of the age - a nineteenth century Bill Gates." And the book also succeeds in highlighting why the rich west (not famous for its malaria!)should not drag its feet in the search for the ultimate cure since "dyanism of movement globalizes malaria". An informative and well-written book that will keep the reader entertained.

WWII is a fascinating subject. From the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, to Germany's secret missile program, to the Manhattan project, the era is packed full of fascinating and often horrific stories of innovation. The story told by Skeeter Beaters is an example of the fascinating. What's great about Skeeter Beaters is that this is a story I hadn't heard before. There's no movie starring John Wayne or Tom Hanks, and not many bullets screaming over the head of the protagonist. Nonetheless, this is a story that should be told. As the editorial review already says, the US was losing many more men to disease than to combat with the Japanese. The US Navy showed good old American innovation by putting a team together assigned to fight the problem. This is the story of that team, and I'm happy that it has been told.

ONCE YOU START TO READ THE BOOK, YOU CAN'T PUT IT DOWN. tHE MEDIC SHOOTING THE JAP IN THE HEAD AFTER TREATING HIM FOR HIS INJURIES. THE FACT THAT OUR (U.S.A.) ENTIRE SUPPLY OF QUININE WAS LOST WHEN THE SHIP CARRYING IT WAS SUNK BY THE JAPS. THE FACT THAT THE MEN ON GUADALCANAL HAD VERY LITTLE FOOD OR SUPPLIES. THIS TRULY IS A BOOK THAT SHOULD BE READ BY EVERYONE.

Most research on opium during the nineteenth century has focused either on Britain or China. A good deal has been written on opium usage in Britain, as well as moral and medical attitudes towards the substance, and the history of Anglo-Chinese political and economic relationships generally give a prominent place to opium and its wars. Britain and China were primarily consumers during the century, and until late on, most of the drug came from India. By the 1890s, more poppies were being grown in China and the Middle East, and the market share enjoyed by Indian producers was being challenged.

Paul C. Winther's decision to concentrate his research on India is thus to be applauded, as is his exposition of debates about the value of opium as a protective and possible cure for cases of malaria. As he points out, the "malaria" diagnosis during his period was vague, and included many fevers that were subsequently differentiated, on the basis of subtly different clinical courses and a variety of specific causative agents. The malaria and opium nexus is consequently extremely tenuous, and nineteenth-century judgments about the drug's role in treating fevers were a heady mix of moral, economic, and psychological factors.

For readers like myself with a vested interest in his particular theme, Winther has much to offer. He has read widely and offers full descriptions of a number of works relevant to the topic. Almost half of the book is devoted to the evidence collected by the 1894 Royal Commission on Opium. He shows how the seven volumes of evidence and conclusions were collected and analysed, concentrating especially on the key medical member of the Commission, Sir William Roberts, a prominent Manchester physician. The Commission took evidence from a wide variety of witnesses, British as well as Indian, and they heard an equally wide variety of opinion, about the extent of opium use in India, as well as its medical value. Given the Government of India's need for the revenues from the drug, both as a source of export income and as a tidy profit from home sales (the Government controlled most production), the Committee's recommendation that the opium trade be continued is hardly surprising. Whether the Committee was convened simply to pacify the increasingly vocal activities of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade is another matter.

Winther implies that there was collusion and deliberate selection of testimony favourable to the economic interests of the Government of India. The evidence, as presented here, is less compelling. Roberts certainly interpreted the evidence with which he had been presented to conclude that the medical value of opium was such that a prohibition on its sale (and export) would be unjustified. In addition, he drew on two earlier studies that purported to demonstrate the value of opium as an effective drug against malaria. Using hindsight, it is easy for Winther to show that these clinical studies were rather inconclusive and faulty. In his eagerness to condemn Roberts, Winther uses modern criteria of clinical evaluation, and at one point castigates Roberts for not being aware of Ronald Ross's researches on the mode of transmission of malaria. Given the fact that Roberts was writing two years before Ross published anything on the subject, this is historical hindsight with a vengeance.

Winther's study is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Indian dimension of opium production and use. Its value to students of the history of malaria is less clear. He has uncovered some salient debates on the relative merits of opium and quinine in cases of "fever," but his trawling of the literature on fevers in nineteenth-century India is selective, and opium featured much less in this literature that an uncritical reading of this monograph would suggest.

I loved this book. I dont remember how I came to own it but I think I ordered it after seeing a review in a magazine. It isnt the type of book I normally buy nor read but I am glad I got it. I liked not just the history or the story, but the cultural insights that are buried in the book too.

This book gave a great insight on the problems of malaria in Africa, well worth reading and must for parasitology students like myself.

Extremely informative and wonderfully written.

Patrick Duffy, you have outdone yourself this time. Kudos to you...Kudos indeed!

Loaded with great color diagrams and pictures, this book covers information on malaria for any level of student. The basics are easy to understand, and the technical aspects go as deep as most anyone would want. A great resouce for high school/college level research papers, as well as for health care workers. Packed with information and very reader friendly.

I am in the process of curing my candida. Nothing, NOTHING esle has worked. This is working. My Father is starting to take MMS for Parkinsons. Who knows what will happen there... but that's the point... ONLY GOOD THINGS CAN HAPPEN ON THIS STUFF, that's why the FDA has just banned it in the states and trying to in OZ. If you can get hold of it over there, good luck to you. I'm stocking up now and about to send some to a guy with aids, a disease Jim has had outstanding success with as stated in this book. Up to you.

i have to make a project on this topi

This is an excellent book on the history of a terrible disease. It is clear, accurate and very well written. The book is relatively old, so it does not include almost any information on the attempts (unsuccessful so far) to develop a vaccine, but if you are looking for a readable and accurate book to be introduced to the history of the fight against malaria and of the men who mostly contributed to it, I don't think there is a better choice. Desovitz has a more recent book (The malaria capers) which belongs to the same category, but his style is condescending and he tries to be funny without any real sense of humor. Also, while Desovitz intoduces sometimes technical concepts without really giving enough information to the non-expect reader to appreciate the content, Harrison reaches a great balance between scientific accuracy and readibility. Finally, you can buy an excellent used copy of this book for a pittance. Highly recommended!