Table of Contents
1 Cover
2 Preface to the Second Edition
3 1 The Nature of Plagues Living Off Others Plagues and Parasites Predicting Plagues A Measles Outbreak The Evolution of Plagues
4 2 Plagues, the Price of Being Sedentary Becoming Human, Becoming Parasitized The Road to Plagues: More Humans, More Disease The Effect of Agriculture The Lethal Gifts of Agriculture The Accident That Caused Societal Differences
5 3 Six Plagues of Antiquity The Pharaohs’ Plague The Plague of Athens The Roman Fever Plagues and the Rise of Christianity The Antonine Plague The Cyprian Plague The Justinian Plague
6 4 An Ancient Plague, the Black Death A Look Back Public Health Discrimination Church Medicine Education Economy and Social Order Finding the Killer Finding the Vector The Disease of Plague The Plague-Causing Bacterium, Yersinia pestis Plague Today Vaccines Coda
7 5 A 21st Century Plague, AIDS A Look Back HIV Discovered The Genes of HIV HIV Targets Immune Cells HIV and AIDS Failure To Control by Antibody or Vaccine AZT, the First Antiretroviral Drug Beyond AZT “Catching” HIV Control of AIDS HIV and the African Connection The Sooty Mangabey Connection: HIV-2 The Social Context of AIDS
8 6 Typhus, a Fever Plague A Look Back Typhus in People Finding the Killer A Lousy Business Discrimination and Dissemination Typhus and the “Immigrant Problem” Typhus Today Typhus Vaccine Coda
9 7 Malaria, Another Fever Plague A Look Back The Disease Malaria “Catching” Malaria Malaria Today Treatment Prevention of Malaria Genetic Resistance to Malaria: Sickle Cell Trait and Duffy Factor The Elusive Malaria Vaccine Coda
10 8 “King Cholera” A Look Back The Disease Cholera Pandemic Cholera Death by Dehydration ”Catching” Cholera Controlling Cholera Cholera, Sanitation, and Public Health