Cannonball Read 16

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The World’s Deadliest Animal

The Fever: How Malaria has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years by Sonia Shah

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CBR Bingo: The Wilds (all about malaria, mosquitoes, and pesticides) There’s nothing I like reading about more than infectious disease. I’ve read books about rabies, smallpox, influenza, cholera, plague, and lots of others, but I’d never found one about malaria before, so I was really excited to read The Fever. Sadly, I had a lot of trouble getting into this book. Malaria is really hard to understand. It has a complex disease process, and while Shah breaks it down in the first chapter, I still had trouble […]

Maybe save this one for 2021.

Pandemic by Sonia Shah

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I love reading about infectious diseases, I really do. And I love reading about the history of public health, particularly in relation to infectious diseases and pandemics. But was it wise to read a book about pandemics, and the weaknesses in our public health infrastructure, at this particular moment in time? Perhaps not! It’s impossible to review this book without acknowledging the very weird time we are in, and the fact that Sonia Shah, like so many other infectious disease journalists and experts around the […]

It’s flu season, let’s talk about all the diseases that can kill you…

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Now that flu season is in full swing, and our flu shots aren’t doing us much good this year, it’s a good time to talk about all the disgusting diseases that can kill you. But let’s up the stakes and focus on diseases that spread worldwide, we’re talking cholera, Ebola, SARS…pandemic level contagions. Sonia Shah’s book, Pandemic, focuses heavily on cholera, tracking its meager beginnings to its reemergence today. Shah believes that by studying cholera, many other world diseases can be understood. But she doesn’t […]

Viruses and bacteria and parasites, oh my!

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When I started reading “Pandemic” I was skeptical about whether it could teach me anything new, I’ve treated patients with Malaria, HIV, Brucella and Leishmania (although I have yet to encounter Cholera) and many more exotic pathogens, but was pleasantly surprised at how much there is to be gleamed from this short yet dense book. “Outbreaks are inevitable, but pandemics are optional”, this may seem like an odd proposition, but throughout her book, Shah shows how it is human agency and institutions that help spread […]



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