Germ Warriors: Stories of Men and Women Fighting the World's Worst Plagues

When epidemiologists are called in to help contain a hot zone they often possess only the barest details of what the sickness in question actually does, how it is communicated to its victims, and where it originated. Solving those mysteries takes real personal courage combined with the ability to think clearly and creatively while locked in a life-or-death battle with the unknown. Adrenaline’s Germ Warriors includes many of the best-known journalists currently writing about contagion. From Richard Preston on smallpox (“The Demon in the Freezer”) to Edward Marriott on fighting the bubonic plague, from Michael Shnayerson and Mark Plotkin on drug-resistant bacteria to Ken Alibek pulling back the curtain on the Soviet bio-weapons program, from Peter Moore on new rogue diseases to Marilyn Thompson on anthrax, this is a fascinating collection of the best, most gripping writing about one of the greatest challenges we are facing in the new century. Medical detection doesn’t get any better or more relevant than this.