Death in a Small Package
eBook - ePub

Death in a Small Package

A Short History of Anthrax

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Death in a Small Package

A Short History of Anthrax

About this book

A disease of soil, animals, and people, anthrax has threatened lives for at least two thousand years. Farmers have long recognized its lasting virulence, but in our time, anthrax has been associated with terrorism and warfare. What accounts for this frightening transformation? Death in a Small Package recounts how this ubiquitous agricultural disease came to be one of the deadliest and most feared biological weapons in the world.

Bacillus anthracis is lethal. Animals killed by the disease are buried deep underground, where anthrax spores remain viable for decades or even centuries and, if accidentally disturbed, can cause new infections. But anthrax can be deliberately aerosolized and used to kill—as it was in the United States in 2001.

Historian and veterinarian Susan D. Jones recounts the life story of anthrax through the biology of the bacillus; the political, economic, geographic, and scientific factors that affect anthrax prevalance; and the cultural beliefs about the disease that have shaped human responses to it. She explains how Bacillus anthracis became domesticated, discusses what researchers have learned from numerous outbreaks, and analyzes how the bacillus came to be weaponized and what this development means for the modern world.

Jones compellingly narrates the biography of this frightfully hardy disease from the ancient world through the present day.

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Yes, you can access Death in a Small Package by Susan D. Jones in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Medicine & Ethics in Medicine. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Foreword
  8. Preface
  9. Introduction
  10. Chapter 1 Infectivity and Fear: Charbon and the Cursed Fields
  11. Chapter 2 Availability: Understanding the Germ of Anthrax
  12. Chapter 3 Transmission: Anthrax Enters the Factory
  13. Chapter 4 Casualty Effectiveness: War and Anthrax
  14. Chapter 5 Resistance: Anthrax, the Modern Laboratory, and the Environment
  15. Chapter 6 Detection and Verification: The Weapon and the Disease
  16. Stories about Anthrax
  17. Acknowledgments
  18. Notes
  19. Index
  20. Back Cover