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Bitten: True Medical Stories of Bites and Stings
STARTLING TRUE CASES OF BITE ATTACKS, RESULTING INFECTIONS, AND ENSUING TREATMENTS---
From ticks, ants, and flying bats to elephant seals, Komodo dragons, rhesus macaques, and deadliest of all, humans.
We’ve all been bitten. And we all have stories.
The bite attacks that Pamela Nagami, M.D., has chosen to write about in Bitten take place in big cities, small towns, and remote villages around the world and throughout history, locales as familiar as New York or Hollywood, or exotic as Africa, the Middle East, or Indonesia. They include a six-year-old girl who descended into weeks of extreme lassitude from a tick bite; a diabetic in the West Indies who awoke to find a rat eating two of his toes; a California man who developed “flesh-eating strep” following a penile bite; and more.
With reports from medical journals, case histories, colleagues, and her own twenty-five-year career as a practicing physician and infectious diseases specialist, Pamela Nagami offers readers intrigued by infection, disease, and mesmerized by creatures in the wild a compulsively readable narrative that is entertaining, sometimes disturbing, and always engrossing.
From ticks, ants, and flying bats to elephant seals, Komodo dragons, rhesus macaques, and deadliest of all, humans.
We’ve all been bitten. And we all have stories.
The bite attacks that Pamela Nagami, M.D., has chosen to write about in Bitten take place in big cities, small towns, and remote villages around the world and throughout history, locales as familiar as New York or Hollywood, or exotic as Africa, the Middle East, or Indonesia. They include a six-year-old girl who descended into weeks of extreme lassitude from a tick bite; a diabetic in the West Indies who awoke to find a rat eating two of his toes; a California man who developed “flesh-eating strep” following a penile bite; and more.
With reports from medical journals, case histories, colleagues, and her own twenty-five-year career as a practicing physician and infectious diseases specialist, Pamela Nagami offers readers intrigued by infection, disease, and mesmerized by creatures in the wild a compulsively readable narrative that is entertaining, sometimes disturbing, and always engrossing.
368 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2004
50 people are currently reading
1580 people want to read
About the author
Pamela Nagami
28 books28 followersDr. Pamela Nagami is a practicing physician in internal medicine and infectious diseases with the Southern California Permanente Medical Group and a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA. She has made appearances on CNN and NPR. She lives with her husband and two children in Encino, California.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
August 19, 2011
Not as many personal stories as there were in Nagami's other book. What I learned: don't fall asleep by the water in gator country, don't go into crawlspaces, don't go into the komodo cage, don't pet strange dogs ... pretty much you should just stay indoors in a climate-controlled bug-free room. Except for the bacteria, but that's another story for another day.
December 4, 2011
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and happily suffered no nightmares while reading it. I was worried, too, because within the pages are tales of bites big and small, from paralysis-bearing ticks to swarms of ants, from feral ferrets to bone-crushing camels.
Nagami writes with a nice balance of compassion, humor, and professionalism. The chapter on monkey bites highlights this; as a woman of science, she supports medical testing on monkeys, but as a compassionate human, she recognizes that the test subjects are thinking, feeling creatures as much to be pitied as the humans they bite.
I felt that the book bogged down a little in the middle, where the author focused more upon the infections and diseases caused by bites, rather than the bites and biters. The chapter on tick paralysis did contain very valuable information on how to avoid ticks and their bites, and I think more of that would have helped. The chapter on human bites was strangely brief and nonspecific, with many of the case histories showing split knuckles from brawls than actual bites.
Dr. Nagami is a fine writer, one of the better medical nonfiction authors I have read. I hope to find her other books at my library as well.
Nagami writes with a nice balance of compassion, humor, and professionalism. The chapter on monkey bites highlights this; as a woman of science, she supports medical testing on monkeys, but as a compassionate human, she recognizes that the test subjects are thinking, feeling creatures as much to be pitied as the humans they bite.
I felt that the book bogged down a little in the middle, where the author focused more upon the infections and diseases caused by bites, rather than the bites and biters. The chapter on tick paralysis did contain very valuable information on how to avoid ticks and their bites, and I think more of that would have helped. The chapter on human bites was strangely brief and nonspecific, with many of the case histories showing split knuckles from brawls than actual bites.
Dr. Nagami is a fine writer, one of the better medical nonfiction authors I have read. I hope to find her other books at my library as well.
May 16, 2023
Bitten: True Medical Stories of Bites and Stings [2004] - ★★★★1/2
I found this book even more fascinating than Nagami's The Woman with a Worm in Her Head, and that maybe because the author does not include so much her own story, but focuses on bites and victims. This is a collection of stories on true cases of bites and stings from around the world. Nagami starts with fire-ants, whose stings can be dangerous to humans, especially if they are allergic to them, and finishes with human bites, which are more common than one can assume. In between the two, there are chilling tales of people being bitten by spiders, jellyfish (one should stay away from Chironex fleckeri!), cone snails, snakes, crocodiles, and tsetse flies that carry dangerous parasites responsible for sleeping sickness. There is also a fascinating chapter on rabies. The other great thing about the book is that Nagami talks about the evolutionary history of many species and even touches on mythology.
I found this book even more fascinating than Nagami's The Woman with a Worm in Her Head, and that maybe because the author does not include so much her own story, but focuses on bites and victims. This is a collection of stories on true cases of bites and stings from around the world. Nagami starts with fire-ants, whose stings can be dangerous to humans, especially if they are allergic to them, and finishes with human bites, which are more common than one can assume. In between the two, there are chilling tales of people being bitten by spiders, jellyfish (one should stay away from Chironex fleckeri!), cone snails, snakes, crocodiles, and tsetse flies that carry dangerous parasites responsible for sleeping sickness. There is also a fascinating chapter on rabies. The other great thing about the book is that Nagami talks about the evolutionary history of many species and even touches on mythology.
September 22, 2009
I just finished the book this morning and I definitely loved it.
While I did give it a 5 star rating one thing that did bother me it some chapters are worded in a way that any of these bites are guaranteed death unless there is immediate medical treatment(cat and dog bites for example). Some(jelly fish attacks, snake bites) are warranted obviously.
Great read, don't recommend to anyone who's a hypochrondriac or scared of insects(or just skip the first few chapters).
While I did give it a 5 star rating one thing that did bother me it some chapters are worded in a way that any of these bites are guaranteed death unless there is immediate medical treatment(cat and dog bites for example). Some(jelly fish attacks, snake bites) are warranted obviously.
Great read, don't recommend to anyone who's a hypochrondriac or scared of insects(or just skip the first few chapters).
September 2, 2007
The komodo dragon kills it victims through a daft bit of symbiosis: thousands of deadly bacteria are happy in its mouth, but in the bodies of others, they kill while turning their insides into a fetid, half-digested milkshake. Animal slows down and dies, komodo dragon slurps it down like a smoothie.
Humans can get bitten by a lot of things, causing them to die in a lot of different ways. Infectious disease specialist Nagami is more than happy to explicate all this; both reverent and morbid, depending on your perspective.
Humans can get bitten by a lot of things, causing them to die in a lot of different ways. Infectious disease specialist Nagami is more than happy to explicate all this; both reverent and morbid, depending on your perspective.
August 21, 2010
This was a fascinating book, with each chapter detailing a different type of bite that could very likely prove fatal to humans. Many of the chapters involved creepy imagery from swarms of fire ants to fatal spider bites. Tips on bite-prevention (the largest section on dog bites) and what type of medical care to immediately pursue were easily laid out in each section. The range of topics was widespread and I was genuinely disappointed when this interesting book ended.
December 21, 2011
Definitely not for the sqeamish, this book covers various types of bites and stings from around the world, and provides graphic case studies for each one. From spiders to mosquitos, from snakes to dogs, Bitten tells us exactly how each type of bite or sting affects humans and why. By the time you finish reading this book, you will never look at another creature in the same way again.
August 1, 2025
A fascinating read that kept me asking the question: how are so many of us alive when all it takes is a microbe to kill us?
January 4, 2008
Ok yes, this is a book of medical stories that will most likely make your skin crawl, but I just couldn't put it down. The strange-but-true stuff is absolutely fascinating. Another book I wouldn't normally pick up, but it was again a great change of pace for my leisure reading. Beware: you might quote some seriously creepy facts about the tsetse fly after reading this.
June 10, 2007
This was an excellent book, composed of vignettes of medical cases of people being bitten by various critters, and interspersed with compelling discussion of the science and issues providing context.
December 8, 2018
I have been fascinated with bacteriology (now called microbiology) since I took an introductory bacteriology class from Prof. Charles H. Drake and talked my way into a junior-level medical bacteriology class taught by Prof. Elizabeth Hall as an undergraduate at Washington State University. My Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology went out of date about a century ago but I still enjoy reading about the unseen world of bacteria, yeasts, molds, archaea, viruses, fungi, prions, protozoa and algae. It remains fascinating that anything so small can be of such great importance to so many things that matter immensely to humans: their health, their food, their security, their biome. Author Pamela Nagami is an MD who practices and teaches infectious-disease medicine. She draws on a remarkable international survey of medical literature to tell the story of bites: dog bites, tick bites, bat bites, Komodo dragon bites, jellyfish stings, mosquito bites, and, perhaps worst of all, human bites. One might be less inclined to punch another person in the mouth if one knew that a great way to transfer Eikenella corrodens from another person's teeth into one's own body is to break the skin on the puncher's knuckles with the punchee's teeth. One might be less inclined to engage in some sorts of global tourism if one had a better appreciation of the specific risks. One might deport themselves differently in a public restroom if they were more mindful of the variety of microscopic bad stuff living in there. Nagami tells suspenseful tales of the early attempts to counter infectious disease, of medical history going back to the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans, and of modern detective work in public health. This is a well written book which is clearly not for everyone.
October 17, 2015
_Bitten_ by Pamela Nagami, is a very interesting and well-researched popular science compilation of information and stories about just about every animal that stings, bites, or can carry infectious disease. Though a few are left out (notably sharks), a great many are included, each chapter often opening up with an interesting case history of a person afflicted by one of the animals in question, followed up by information on the organism, details on the disease that they may spread, and generally several other case histories of various patients throughout the world (some of which are from the author's own experiences as a practicing physician specialized in infectious disease). I found riveting not only some of the case histories but also the incredible medical detective stories, both those relating to saving patient's lives and in other instances the struggle to develop an anti-venom or to find the animal spreading a disease. Several chapters included information on what the reader should do when confronted by this animal (for example tips on safe tick removal and effective treatment for cat and dog bites). A helpful glossary and extensive bibliography are included.
The first several animals included in the book are dangerous mainly because of their venomous bites or stings, namely fire ants, several spider species, Portuguese man-of-war and various jellyfish species, cone snails, and a number of venomous snakes.
The fire ant chapter was illuminating. I was fascinated to learn that fire ants are even more trouble than I had imagined; livestock have been known to starve when fire ants render their food inaccessible, thousands of trout have been found that died from venom poisoning after eating swarms of winged males and queens that had flown into lakes, and fire ants, attracted to the warmth of heated asphalt, have caused rural roads to collapse as they built mounds beneath them, the undermined soil eventually subsiding and causing the road to collapse.
The chapter on spiders was also quite interesting. The reasons why small spider bites can cause such huge problems for victims is still incompletely understood, but may have to do with an enzyme found in some spider venom (such as that of the brown recluse) that attacks and dissolves cell membranes. This enzyme sets a victim's defenses against his or her own tissue, leading white blood cells to dissolve a victim's flesh. This necrotic arachnidism is a worldwide problem and there isn't any consensus on best treatment.
The next group of animals was largely included for the ability to transmit infectious disease. Included in this section are ticks, tsetse flies (with the emphasis being largely on sleeping sickness), and the sandfly (which spread leishmaniasis, parasitic diseases of the skin, moist membranes of the mouth and airway, liver, spleen, and bone marrow, caused by protozoa of the genus _Leishmania_ ). Also included was a chapter on the West Nile virus, a chapter which read like a medical thriller.
Tick paralysis was very interesting to read about. At first a rather mysterious paralytic illness, physicians discovered that an attached tick could cause a type of spreading paralysis in a person or in livestock, a completely debilitating and even potentially fatal paralysis yet one that can be stopped and completely reversed when the tick is found and removed (viewers of the show _House_ will remember a case of tick paralysis from the series; indeed many of the case histories sound like the opening segments of a _House_ episode, minus of course the misanthropic doctor).
It was sad to learn that human African trypanosomiasis (East African and West African sleeping sickness) was present on the continent since prehistoric times but only became widely disseminated when Africans left their ancestral homelands thanks to roads and railways brought by the Europeans during the colonial period, a problem exacerbated when what measure of disease control maintained by the empires collapsed during the civil wars and chaos left in the wake of the European withdrawal.
Massive efforts were made to control sleeping sickness, including for a time the draconian method of wholesale destruction of wild game. In addition to "being repugnant to practically everyone," these efforts were doomed to fail because the tsetse fly, when deprived of lions, hartebeests, and bushbucks, simply moved to smaller game, and in areas cleared of wildlife, humans and their livestock moved in, becoming replacement hosts themselves for the parasites. Nagami quoted from Dr. Robert Desowitz, the author of an essay on sleeping sickness ("The Fly Who Would Be King"), who noted that "the tsetse and the trypanosome are the most stalwart guardians of the African ecosystem and its magnificent wild fauna."
The final section looked at animals that pose a danger from the damage caused by their teeth and claws and from the infection of those wounds. Included in this section where chapters on the komodo dragon, alligators, crocodiles, dogs, cats, ferrets, rats, horses, donkeys, camels, garfish, seals, roosters, owls, monkeys, the wildlife that spreads rabies, and surprisingly humans (human bite injuries, particularly to the knuckle joint, can become infected with the bacterium _Eikenella corrodens_ which can cause irreversible damage).
I was surprised to read how vicious ferrets can be. In 1988 alone physicians in Denver, Colorado reported three cases of severe facial injuries to infants from attacks by pet ferrets. In one instance a three-month-old girl, placed in her crib with her bottle, was attacked by the family ferret which managed to climb in and a few minutes chew off forty percent of both her ears. Another patient, a baby girl, lost her nose to a ferret attack.
A very interesting series of chapters, the squeamish reader is warned about "seal finger" (a bacterial infection caused by seal bites, one that can cause swollen and stiff fingers and joints and pain so agonizing that sealers once amputated their own fingers for relief) and rats eating the flesh of sleeping people (those with nerve damage, such from diabetes and leprosy, are quite susceptible to rat attacks at night).
The first several animals included in the book are dangerous mainly because of their venomous bites or stings, namely fire ants, several spider species, Portuguese man-of-war and various jellyfish species, cone snails, and a number of venomous snakes.
The fire ant chapter was illuminating. I was fascinated to learn that fire ants are even more trouble than I had imagined; livestock have been known to starve when fire ants render their food inaccessible, thousands of trout have been found that died from venom poisoning after eating swarms of winged males and queens that had flown into lakes, and fire ants, attracted to the warmth of heated asphalt, have caused rural roads to collapse as they built mounds beneath them, the undermined soil eventually subsiding and causing the road to collapse.
The chapter on spiders was also quite interesting. The reasons why small spider bites can cause such huge problems for victims is still incompletely understood, but may have to do with an enzyme found in some spider venom (such as that of the brown recluse) that attacks and dissolves cell membranes. This enzyme sets a victim's defenses against his or her own tissue, leading white blood cells to dissolve a victim's flesh. This necrotic arachnidism is a worldwide problem and there isn't any consensus on best treatment.
The next group of animals was largely included for the ability to transmit infectious disease. Included in this section are ticks, tsetse flies (with the emphasis being largely on sleeping sickness), and the sandfly (which spread leishmaniasis, parasitic diseases of the skin, moist membranes of the mouth and airway, liver, spleen, and bone marrow, caused by protozoa of the genus _Leishmania_ ). Also included was a chapter on the West Nile virus, a chapter which read like a medical thriller.
Tick paralysis was very interesting to read about. At first a rather mysterious paralytic illness, physicians discovered that an attached tick could cause a type of spreading paralysis in a person or in livestock, a completely debilitating and even potentially fatal paralysis yet one that can be stopped and completely reversed when the tick is found and removed (viewers of the show _House_ will remember a case of tick paralysis from the series; indeed many of the case histories sound like the opening segments of a _House_ episode, minus of course the misanthropic doctor).
It was sad to learn that human African trypanosomiasis (East African and West African sleeping sickness) was present on the continent since prehistoric times but only became widely disseminated when Africans left their ancestral homelands thanks to roads and railways brought by the Europeans during the colonial period, a problem exacerbated when what measure of disease control maintained by the empires collapsed during the civil wars and chaos left in the wake of the European withdrawal.
Massive efforts were made to control sleeping sickness, including for a time the draconian method of wholesale destruction of wild game. In addition to "being repugnant to practically everyone," these efforts were doomed to fail because the tsetse fly, when deprived of lions, hartebeests, and bushbucks, simply moved to smaller game, and in areas cleared of wildlife, humans and their livestock moved in, becoming replacement hosts themselves for the parasites. Nagami quoted from Dr. Robert Desowitz, the author of an essay on sleeping sickness ("The Fly Who Would Be King"), who noted that "the tsetse and the trypanosome are the most stalwart guardians of the African ecosystem and its magnificent wild fauna."
The final section looked at animals that pose a danger from the damage caused by their teeth and claws and from the infection of those wounds. Included in this section where chapters on the komodo dragon, alligators, crocodiles, dogs, cats, ferrets, rats, horses, donkeys, camels, garfish, seals, roosters, owls, monkeys, the wildlife that spreads rabies, and surprisingly humans (human bite injuries, particularly to the knuckle joint, can become infected with the bacterium _Eikenella corrodens_ which can cause irreversible damage).
I was surprised to read how vicious ferrets can be. In 1988 alone physicians in Denver, Colorado reported three cases of severe facial injuries to infants from attacks by pet ferrets. In one instance a three-month-old girl, placed in her crib with her bottle, was attacked by the family ferret which managed to climb in and a few minutes chew off forty percent of both her ears. Another patient, a baby girl, lost her nose to a ferret attack.
A very interesting series of chapters, the squeamish reader is warned about "seal finger" (a bacterial infection caused by seal bites, one that can cause swollen and stiff fingers and joints and pain so agonizing that sealers once amputated their own fingers for relief) and rats eating the flesh of sleeping people (those with nerve damage, such from diabetes and leprosy, are quite susceptible to rat attacks at night).
October 15, 2025
This is a non-fiction book as scary as Stephen King. It’s about all the things that will gladly bite you, and maybe kill you.
June 23, 2015
In "Bitten," Dr. Pamela Nagami chronicles "accounts of unhappy encounters between people and various kinds of biting and stinging animals, even those of the human kind." These creatures range from ants, spiders, and ticks to, yes, human beings.
It's hard to believe that something as small as an ant could kill someone, but it happens. The book details the case of a 90-year-old woman with dementia who was found covered with thousands of ants. Within six hours, she was dead due to infection. There have been similar cases of people, including babies, who had allergic reactions to fire ant stings.
I have never been afraid of spiders, but I respect them and leave them alone. I had an ancestor who lost her 6-month-old baby, who was bitten by a black widow spider. We have black widow spiders on our property and we cut them a wide berth. Dr. Nagami states that you can tell a black widow spider's web by the sound it makes when it is broken - like paper crackling in fire. I thought about trying that out, but I don't think my family would approve.
Dr. Nagami talks about spiders much larger and much deadlier than black widows, like the wandering spider of Brazil, which is 13 inches across. When threatened, it does not run away - they rise up on their two hind legs, lift the long forelegs, and bristle their red underhairs. If they are not killed by the swat of a broom, they may climb rapidly up the stick and they are not afraid to bite. Delightful. I don't think I'll be going to Brazil any time soon. I can handle the spiders around here (Texas), but I think the Brazilian ones are out of my league.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
Dr. Nagami also discusses jellyfish, which have been known to kill even healthy adults, cone snails, and my least favorite animal, the snake. I admit to being terrified of snakes. I came within inches of being bit by a rattlesnake a few years ago. In the chapter, "The Limbless Ones," Dr. Nagami talks about snakebites, including a man in South America who survived being attacked by the infamous bushmaster, a snake that makes the diamondback rattlesnake look harmless. His survival was a miracle, though he did lose his entire right leg. Ugh. That's a chapter I usually skip.
One of my favorite chapters is about ticks. Most people have heard of Lyme Disease, but tick paralysis is worse. In the early 20th century, doctors began noticing babies and young children suffering and even dying from paralysis that was traced to ticks. If the tick was removed, the patient usually recovered. For example, in the case of Mrs. H.E.T. of South Carolina in 1938, her paralysis became worse until she could no longer walk or feed herself. When a nurse was combing the woman's hair, she found a large wood tick in Mrs. H.E.T.'s scalp. It was promptly removed and the woman felt better the next day. When she was examined two weeks later, she was fully recovered and none the worse for her experience.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. For me, the worst chapters (even worse than the snake one) are the ones about rabies and sleeping sickness. Tragic and incredibly sad. This book is extremely interesting and it's easy to lose track of time when reading it. I have loaned it to coworkers and had a hard time getting it back.
Very recommended, but not for the faint of heart.
It's hard to believe that something as small as an ant could kill someone, but it happens. The book details the case of a 90-year-old woman with dementia who was found covered with thousands of ants. Within six hours, she was dead due to infection. There have been similar cases of people, including babies, who had allergic reactions to fire ant stings.
I have never been afraid of spiders, but I respect them and leave them alone. I had an ancestor who lost her 6-month-old baby, who was bitten by a black widow spider. We have black widow spiders on our property and we cut them a wide berth. Dr. Nagami states that you can tell a black widow spider's web by the sound it makes when it is broken - like paper crackling in fire. I thought about trying that out, but I don't think my family would approve.
Dr. Nagami talks about spiders much larger and much deadlier than black widows, like the wandering spider of Brazil, which is 13 inches across. When threatened, it does not run away - they rise up on their two hind legs, lift the long forelegs, and bristle their red underhairs. If they are not killed by the swat of a broom, they may climb rapidly up the stick and they are not afraid to bite. Delightful. I don't think I'll be going to Brazil any time soon. I can handle the spiders around here (Texas), but I think the Brazilian ones are out of my league.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
Dr. Nagami also discusses jellyfish, which have been known to kill even healthy adults, cone snails, and my least favorite animal, the snake. I admit to being terrified of snakes. I came within inches of being bit by a rattlesnake a few years ago. In the chapter, "The Limbless Ones," Dr. Nagami talks about snakebites, including a man in South America who survived being attacked by the infamous bushmaster, a snake that makes the diamondback rattlesnake look harmless. His survival was a miracle, though he did lose his entire right leg. Ugh. That's a chapter I usually skip.
One of my favorite chapters is about ticks. Most people have heard of Lyme Disease, but tick paralysis is worse. In the early 20th century, doctors began noticing babies and young children suffering and even dying from paralysis that was traced to ticks. If the tick was removed, the patient usually recovered. For example, in the case of Mrs. H.E.T. of South Carolina in 1938, her paralysis became worse until she could no longer walk or feed herself. When a nurse was combing the woman's hair, she found a large wood tick in Mrs. H.E.T.'s scalp. It was promptly removed and the woman felt better the next day. When she was examined two weeks later, she was fully recovered and none the worse for her experience.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. For me, the worst chapters (even worse than the snake one) are the ones about rabies and sleeping sickness. Tragic and incredibly sad. This book is extremely interesting and it's easy to lose track of time when reading it. I have loaned it to coworkers and had a hard time getting it back.
Very recommended, but not for the faint of heart.
December 6, 2015
3.5 stars
This book, while enjoyable, wasn't exactly what I was hoping it would be. I was under the assumption that it was a more clinical book than The Woman with the Worm in Her Head but that it would be similar. However, it wasn't really stories of different kinds of bites as much as it was a discussion of the history of different bacteria and how some different diseases were discovered. IT was interesting, but not what I was expecting.
It was also a little clinical for my taste. I was hoping it would tell stories of a patient or two from each chapter, but that's not really what this book did.
Minus 1.5 stars because of the, I believe, false advertising of this book
This book, while enjoyable, wasn't exactly what I was hoping it would be. I was under the assumption that it was a more clinical book than The Woman with the Worm in Her Head but that it would be similar. However, it wasn't really stories of different kinds of bites as much as it was a discussion of the history of different bacteria and how some different diseases were discovered. IT was interesting, but not what I was expecting.
It was also a little clinical for my taste. I was hoping it would tell stories of a patient or two from each chapter, but that's not really what this book did.
Minus 1.5 stars because of the, I believe, false advertising of this book
December 20, 2015
Dr. Nanami's first book is one of my favorite medical puzzle books of all time, was excited to read another. Like all books of this type, it invokes fascination, horror, and "hell no, I'm never leaving my bed again!" responses, though since so many dangerous bites occur in bed, that doesn't even feel like a safe space to read this book. Now I know why every spider that anyone thinks may have been looking at someone funny is automatically a brown recluse (people's obsession with them confused me when I first moved to a state in their coverage). And once again, a strong desire to stay away from Australia. And I'm very, very thankful that I tolerate penicillin-type antibiotics well.
February 28, 2016
Themes: Yucky critters, unpleasant diseases and germs, why you should stay out of the jungle
What I learned:
Stay away from bats. If you even touch a bat, get the rabies shots.
Never have a ferret as a pet.
I'm glad there are no fire ants in Utah.
If you HAVE to go to the jungle, as soon as you develop a rash or a fever, visit an infectious diseases specialist and DEMAND to be tested for every possible germ there is. And for Heaven's sake, TAKE ALL YOUR MEDICINE.
And don't bite anyone.
What I learned:
Stay away from bats. If you even touch a bat, get the rabies shots.
Never have a ferret as a pet.
I'm glad there are no fire ants in Utah.
If you HAVE to go to the jungle, as soon as you develop a rash or a fever, visit an infectious diseases specialist and DEMAND to be tested for every possible germ there is. And for Heaven's sake, TAKE ALL YOUR MEDICINE.
And don't bite anyone.
January 28, 2015
This was a hilarious, horrifying, and quick read. You will never look at spiders, snails, bats, mosquitoes, and ferrets the same way. I did wonder why horseflies and hornets and bees weren't included, but I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere. The crocodilian chapter was especially entertaining. This book would be particularly good for a teenager with a macabre bent, or anyone in need of a break from fiction or heavy non-fiction reading.
June 1, 2015
So a couple weeks ago I got an epic spider bite that turned into an epic blister and I was all "huh, weird, I wonder how that works." So I got a book about it. And it was awesome. She covers a wide range of bites and stings,from the obvious (snakes, spiders) to the less-than-obvious (cone snails, FTW!). Not for the faint of heart, but super fascinating for anyone who finds themselves wondering "huh, why did that happen after a bug bit me?"
April 14, 2009
Great facts and amazing subject matter can't entirely cover the barely mediocre writing. What is a nursing sister? And if I hear that someone's airway was "protected by a small plastic tube" one more time...
But still worth a flip through, especially the first half dealing with all kinds of poisonous creatures and some surprising info.
But still worth a flip through, especially the first half dealing with all kinds of poisonous creatures and some surprising info.
July 28, 2008
an interesting account of all the things that can bite you, sting you, and in the process cause you great pain...who knew that the sting of some snails can kill you...or that bacteria in the human mouth can cause serious infection in a bite...an interesting read, but not for the paranoid
May 14, 2014
Really loved this book. I read both this and her other book "The woman with the worm in her head". Dr Nagami has quite a way with words and taking medically interesting stories and making them entrancing. Wonderful.
July 2, 2008
Ever heard of leishmaniasis? Also known as sponge face, it eats through a face starting with the nose. So horrific and gripping you wish you were an epidemiologist.
July 15, 2009
I didn't like this book as well as her "The Woman With the Worm in Her Head" but only because of the arachnids. She is easy to read and uses lots of personal stories.
February 20, 2010
Very entertaining and educational. There's a lot of little cases so it keeps the stories interesting and fun to read.
April 16, 2014
Really enjoyed this book about bites of all kinds and the envenomations & infections they can transmit. My son is enjoying it too :)
October 19, 2014
More than one would ever need to know about bugs and bites of all kinds, but still compulsively readable.
December 18, 2014
Intelligently written, yet easy to read. Loved it!
October 1, 2015
I enjoyed the format of covering different bite types with medical cases to illustrate. It was a nice quick read albeit frightening. I enjoyed the integration of history as well.
June 24, 2009
This collection of bites and stings kept me interested until the end.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews