Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus

Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus by David Quammen"Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus" is a very interesting behind-the-scenes look at the quest to find the host animal carrying this devastating virus. This brief book is a product of sections of his 2012 book Spillover and recent events. Accomplished author and science journalist, David Quammen takes the reader on a journey through the jungles of Africa in search of the reservoir host. This exciting 128-page is broken out into 21 chapters.Positives:1. Solid science writing. Well researched and engaging.2. The hot-button topic of the day.3. Quammen has a good grasp of the topic and writes with skill. It feels more like an action book than a standard-of-the-mill popular science book.4. Like a good philosopher Quammen asks the right questions and its science's quest to get the answers.5. A partial view of the history and science of Ebola. It's very accessible and focuses more on the quest to find the host.6. Introduces and explains terms in an accessible manner. "A reservoir host is a species that carries the pathogen, harbors it chronically, while suffering little or no illness."7. Does a great job of capturing the difficulties associated with tracking down the sources of viruses and in particular the Ebola virus. "Zoonotic pathogens can hide. That's what makes them so interesting, so complicated, and so problematic." Ebola is a zoonosis.8. Provides many examples of other viruses that shed light on the Ebola virus. "Johnson had helped solve the Machupo crisis by his attention to the ecological dimension--that is, where did the virus live when it wasn't killing Bolivian villagers? The reservoir question had been tractable, in that case, and the answer had quickly been found: A native mouse was carrying Machupo into human households and granaries."9. Provides fascinating facts such as the fatality rates for various infections. Find out the total number of fatalities from the discovery of the first ebolavirus in 1976 through the end of 2012.10. Explains the different strains of ebolaviruses. "What can be said, though, is that Ebola virus appears to be the meanest of the four ebolaviruses you've heard about, as gauged by its effect on human populations." "IN LATE 2007 a fifth ebolavirus emerged, this one in western Uganda."11. Always interesting how religious and cultural beliefs intersect with science. "He found that the predominant ethnic group there, the Acholi, were also inclined to attribute Ebola virus disease to supernatural forces. They believed in a form of malign spirit, called gemo, that sometimes swept in like the wind to cause waves of sickness and death. Ebola wasn't their first gemo."12. Puts Ebola virus in perspective. "If you want a really bloody disease, he said, look at Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. Ebola is bad and lethal, sure, but not bad and lethal precisely that way."13. Describes how the Ebola virus infects the human body. "It's not very contagious but it's highly infectious."14. Some captivating stories that stand out, Dr. Kelly Warfield.15. Shows some insight on how science works in the field.16. How RNA viruses evolve. "Rates of replication and mutation of an RNA virus, differential success for different strains of the virus, adaptation of the virus to a new host--that's evolution."17. Theories on the reservoir host of the Ebola virus. "And the evidence on Ebola virus, though not definitive, as I've mentioned, suggests that it too very possibly comes: from bats."18. The links between the Marburg and Ebola virus.19. An excellent Epilogue.20. Source notes and select bibliography provided.Negatives:1. Lacked visual material that would have complemented the excellent narrative. A timeline graph would have been very helpful and added value. A chart or table depicting the various viruses and sources are sorely missed here.2. Not as technical as I would have hoped. I understand that the book is for the masses but an appendix or supplementary material to appease those seeking more info would have been welcomed.3. Lacked insight on the government institutions responsible to handle these epidemics.4. Don't purchase this book if you already own Spillover. It's basically the same book with some minor updates. This book's impetus was to take advantage of the high interest of this subject.In summary, a very good brief book on the Ebola virus. If you are looking for an accessible book that reads more like an adventure than a standard pop-science book you have found your match. It's interesting, engaging and provides some interesting insights on what it takes to track down a reservoir host. Perhaps a bit rushed to take advantage of the interest of the topic and lacking visual supplements but a worthwhile read. I recommend it.Further recommendations: " Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic " by the same author, " The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus " by Richard Preston, " The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance " by Laurie Garrett, " Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC " by Joseph B. McCormick and Susan Fisher-Hoch, " The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History " by John M. Barry, " Killer Germs " by Barry and David Zimmerman, " Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus " by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy, " A Planet of Viruses " by Carl Zimmer, and " By Barbara Natterson-Horowitz Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing (1st Edition) " by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers.

I don’t mean dummies in a rude way; I just mean that this is a very simple introduction to a complex topic of viral infections spreading from animals to humans. And it’s very well written and simply presented. I do think this would benefit from a much longer length, including more detail about the 2014 outbreak. Right now, it’s just a bare outline, but it’s not bad.

Since the publisher called this "material taken from Spillover" (Spillover is here:  Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic ) I wanted to compare it to that wonderful book. In particular, if it was just a way to capitalize on Ebola news and fears, with little more than Spillover reprinting, it would be better for the reader to just GET Spillover!First, Spillover has over 100 pages on Ebola, including the 13 Gorillas primary chapter (vs. 12 Monkeys?) beginning on page 53. In fact, though, Ebola is peppered throughout all of Spillover in fine fashion, and given the little progress that has been made in the last few years (fruit bats, reservoir, etc.) one would assume that this new book doesn't have much new.Well, one would be wrong, as I was. While chipping away at my PhD in Molecular Biology and supercomputing, I worked on the weaponization, epidemiology and response aspects of Ebola (as you might know, Reston had an airborne component, though not humanly virulent in the sense of Zaire/Congo strains) and am still a contributor to Weapbola dot com, although my primary field is now robotics.Both technically and "story wise" this new book is well worth the investment, even if you have read Spillover. Quammen is one of the best Science writers still publishing today, and his books, blogs and articles are always page turners, with deep science woven flawlessly into the narrative. The book is current and up to date as recently as a couple months ago at this writing. Despite the wonderful detail in Spillover, and even with the lack of progress in Ebola research in the last few years, the "perfect storm" potential of groups like ISIS and the relatively robust Ebola lifecyle make this a topic well worth revisiting with the most up to date information, and although there are many new journal articles and even a couple new books coming out, Quammen has already proven himself to be a five star writer, and this is no exception.If you haven't yet read Spillover, should you read it instead, or both, if you're interested in this topic? IMO that depends on how deep your general interest is, because Spillover goes into detail on much more than just Ebola, but this new book does have more detail on the Filos. If you're in the field in any way, you do need both.Here are a few other classics in the field, from (my) selfish viewpoint on weaponization (Ken Alibek is a MUST from that frame):--  Beating Back the Devil --  Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World--Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran It --  Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus --  Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC --  Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Germ Laboratory For top technical/ molecular- cellular bio detail, expensive but the "bible" is still:  Ebola and Marburg Viruses: Molecular and Cellular Biology (Horizon Bioscience) ... and of course the classic and now inexpensive "detective" stories of Richard Preston via The Hot Zone and Demon in the Freezer ( The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus  --  The Demon in the Freezer: A True Story ).DO USE the "look inside" if you want to compare this new and outstanding entry by Quammen to Spillover, but my vote is that it's worth the investment even with Spill.

Just a very small extract from Spillover, by the same author, expected more.

I was disappointed in this book. I wasn't clear on why it was structured the way it was and it didn't seem to hang together very well. The facts and history of e bola were all there but didn't seem to have the impact they should have had. There was a brief reference to the current 2014 outbreak but not enough to warrant calling it a new look in the light of this crisis. Disappointing

I was surprised at how much a small book could cover concisely. This book succeeded beyond what I anticipated. This is an excellent book for someone to get sound overview of what we know and what we need to know.

Quite outstanding review of zoonotic disease, reservoir hosts and the strains of the disease itself. Very good.

David Quammen writes so clearly about complicated topics, its a joy to read and be informed by the way he does it.