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By Irwin W. Sherman.
230 pp, $29.95.
Washington, DC, American Society for Microbiology, 2007.
ISBN-13 978-1-55581-466-3.

JAMA. 2007;298(24):2919-2920.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Disease has influenced the course of human history as much as any force or phenomenon—war, famine, greed, religion, and weather. Maybe more. Plagues in particular have hammered individuals and cultures throughout history. In the superb Twelve Diseases That Changed Our World, 10 of the featured maladies are caused by microbes: smallpox, bubonic plague, cholera, tuberculosis, syphilis, influenza, malaria, yellow fever, AIDS, and the Irish potato blight. Hemophilia and porphyria are the only noninfectious illnesses to make the list.

History, science, personalities, and public health are successfully intermingled in this lively book. The result is a chain of adventure stories with all the requisite elements: peculiar scientists and heroic physicians (are there any other kind?), evil bacteria and viruses, overwhelming odds, and a cast of millions. Highlights include vivid descriptions of diseases (notably cholera), flamboyant profiles of scientists, a first-rate discussion of quarantine, and an excellent chapter on tuberculosis. The . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Tony Miksanek, MD, Reviewer
Benton, Illinois
tmiksanek@aol.com

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