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Deadly Outbreaks: How Medical Detectives Save Lives Threatened by Killer Pandemics, Exotic Viruses, and Drug-Resistant Parasites
Despite advances in health care, infectious microbes continue to be a formidable adversary to scientists and doctors. Vaccines and antibiotics, the mainstays of modern medicine, have not been able to conquer infectious microbes because of their amazing ability to adapt, evolve, and spread to new places. Terrorism aside, one of the greatest dangers from infectious disease we face today is from a massive outbreak of drug-resistant microbes.
Deadly Outbreaks recounts the scientific adventures of a special group of intrepid individuals who investigate these outbreaks around the world and figure out how to stop them. Part homicide detective, part physician, these medical investigators must view the problem from every angle, exhausting every possible source of contamination. Any data gathered in the field must be stripped of human sorrows and carefully analyzed into hard statistics.
Author Dr. Alexandra Levitt is an expert on emerging diseases and other public health threats. Here she shares insider accounts she’s collected that go behind the alarming headlines we’ve seen in the mysterious food poisonings, unexplained deaths at a children’s hospital, a strange neurologic disease afflicting slaughterhouse workers, flocks of birds dropping dead out of the sky, and drug-resistant malaria running rampant in a refugee camp. Meet the resourceful investigators—doctors, veterinarians, and research scientists—and discover the truth behind these cases and more.
Deadly Outbreaks recounts the scientific adventures of a special group of intrepid individuals who investigate these outbreaks around the world and figure out how to stop them. Part homicide detective, part physician, these medical investigators must view the problem from every angle, exhausting every possible source of contamination. Any data gathered in the field must be stripped of human sorrows and carefully analyzed into hard statistics.
Author Dr. Alexandra Levitt is an expert on emerging diseases and other public health threats. Here she shares insider accounts she’s collected that go behind the alarming headlines we’ve seen in the mysterious food poisonings, unexplained deaths at a children’s hospital, a strange neurologic disease afflicting slaughterhouse workers, flocks of birds dropping dead out of the sky, and drug-resistant malaria running rampant in a refugee camp. Meet the resourceful investigators—doctors, veterinarians, and research scientists—and discover the truth behind these cases and more.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2013
281 people are currently reading
2000 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews
January 16, 2015
Seven chapters. Seven disease investigations by public health services. Seven lessons learned.
1. Dead Crows Falling From the Sky -- Lesson: Human health care working with veterinary health care to find answers
2. The McConnon Strain -- Lesson: The Importance of talking to the locals at an outbreak to find information
3. Sorrow & Statistics -- Lesson: The importance of data
4. Obsession or Inspiration -- Lesson: Investigation is a combination of sooo many things. In this case, data collection, correlations, elimination factors, control studies with non-sick, locals, and other illnesses, sample collections.... A huge puzzle and the inspiration one person can have that finds the missing piece.
5. Dangerous Desserts -- Lesson: When it comes to food, ALL the production elements need to be accounted for - from beginning to end product. Also, the importance of publishing findings so others can learn from the case
6. The Red Mist -- Lesson: Always new forms of dispersal of an infectious agent
7. A Normal Spring -- Lesson: "Old World" Diseases keep reappearing in new forms in new locations across the globe.
I found the book interesting to read, full of brilliant people committed to making a difference.
1. Dead Crows Falling From the Sky -- Lesson: Human health care working with veterinary health care to find answers
2. The McConnon Strain -- Lesson: The Importance of talking to the locals at an outbreak to find information
3. Sorrow & Statistics -- Lesson: The importance of data
4. Obsession or Inspiration -- Lesson: Investigation is a combination of sooo many things. In this case, data collection, correlations, elimination factors, control studies with non-sick, locals, and other illnesses, sample collections.... A huge puzzle and the inspiration one person can have that finds the missing piece.
5. Dangerous Desserts -- Lesson: When it comes to food, ALL the production elements need to be accounted for - from beginning to end product. Also, the importance of publishing findings so others can learn from the case
6. The Red Mist -- Lesson: Always new forms of dispersal of an infectious agent
7. A Normal Spring -- Lesson: "Old World" Diseases keep reappearing in new forms in new locations across the globe.
I found the book interesting to read, full of brilliant people committed to making a difference.
September 15, 2013
As the subtitle suggests, Deadly Outbreaks is all about medical mysteries. For suspicious cases where multiple patients die or fall ill and the reason is unknown, epidemiologists are often called in to help determine the cause. Some of these investigations are retrospective, but many require clever deduction to take place quickly in order to prevent more people from becoming sick.
The true stories included in Deadly Outbreaks were all interesting and all very different. Although the first story gave away the ending too early, all of the others had me reading quickly to find out what happened next. I am extremely interested in the intersection of biology and math, so the clever way epidemiologists used the data to solve problems and save lives made this my kind of book. However, some flaws in the writing kept this from being the riveting narrative non-fiction story it had the potential to be.
Two things in particular struck me as off about the writing but I did have an ARC so it’s possible these will be fixed before the book goes to print. In my copy, the tone of the book was very clinical. When we learned about the people involved in each case, the sections introducing them made me feel like someone was reading a resume at me. A few personal details were thrown in, but even these just felt factual. There were also too many details. For instance, the first case wrap-up includes a listing of which borough in NYC the patients were from. Information like this was far less interesting than the main story and slowed the pace of the whole book.
The science was the other big problem. In some cases, many scientific details were thrown in that even as someone in science, I didn’t find interesting (the size of a particular gene, for example). Often these asides weren’t explained well enough that someone without a science background would get anything out of them. These bits were really asides, so if you have no science background you could easily read this book and skip them without being confused. They didn’t, however, serve a useful purpose. Although I’ve spent a while on the bad bits, I don’t mean to suggest this wasn’t an enjoyable read. The stories were so interesting, they basically speak for themselves, so if you have an interest in medical mysteries, this is a book I’d recommend.
This review first published on Doing Dewey.
The true stories included in Deadly Outbreaks were all interesting and all very different. Although the first story gave away the ending too early, all of the others had me reading quickly to find out what happened next. I am extremely interested in the intersection of biology and math, so the clever way epidemiologists used the data to solve problems and save lives made this my kind of book. However, some flaws in the writing kept this from being the riveting narrative non-fiction story it had the potential to be.
Two things in particular struck me as off about the writing but I did have an ARC so it’s possible these will be fixed before the book goes to print. In my copy, the tone of the book was very clinical. When we learned about the people involved in each case, the sections introducing them made me feel like someone was reading a resume at me. A few personal details were thrown in, but even these just felt factual. There were also too many details. For instance, the first case wrap-up includes a listing of which borough in NYC the patients were from. Information like this was far less interesting than the main story and slowed the pace of the whole book.
The science was the other big problem. In some cases, many scientific details were thrown in that even as someone in science, I didn’t find interesting (the size of a particular gene, for example). Often these asides weren’t explained well enough that someone without a science background would get anything out of them. These bits were really asides, so if you have no science background you could easily read this book and skip them without being confused. They didn’t, however, serve a useful purpose. Although I’ve spent a while on the bad bits, I don’t mean to suggest this wasn’t an enjoyable read. The stories were so interesting, they basically speak for themselves, so if you have an interest in medical mysteries, this is a book I’d recommend.
This review first published on Doing Dewey.
June 7, 2015
Explores the medical mysteries behind identifying the avian flu, Legionnaire's Disease, the hantavirus in New Mexico, and several other (some still unsolved) disease outbreaks. Sort of like Bones and CSI in real life. It's scary how many brilliant people in differing fields need to work together to discover some of the causalities. Interesting book, but I would have liked more science and victim stories, and less background on the scientists.
June 1, 2020
I remember reading news stories about half of these outbreaks, so it's interesting to read about the work of epidemiologists. At times, it got a little technical for me, but even if I only got 85% of the content, that's still 85% more information than I had before reading this book!
Ch. 1: "Dead Crows Falling from the Sky" describes how in 1999 teams of medical detectives worked separately on a spike of mysterious deaths in the boroughs of NYC. In Queens, a number of older adults who had spent significant time outdoors died of encephalitis, etc. And a large number of birds were dying. Finally, the two teams worked together to determine it was an outbreak of West Nile virus.
Ch. 2 "The McConnon Strain" reviews cases of malaria in Cambodia in the 1970s and the decision of the US government about who could be moved to the Philippines and then to the US. Scientists did a lot of analysis and did not see a pattern in who got infected until they asked locals, who reported that men were running contraband at night in the jungles, which explained the spike.
Ch 3 "Sorrow and Statistics" explains in great detail how data from a pediatric unit in Toronto was analyzed in an attempt to determine if there was a pattern behind higher-than-normal statistics for infant deaths between midnight and 6 am--pointing to a malevolent staff member as the most probably variable.
Ch 4: "Obsession or Inspiration" describes the work behind identifying the 1976 Legionaire's disease outbreak in Philly. After many scientists reaching a dead end, a lone scientist who had a seemingly unrelated skill set ended up identifying the bacteria. The moral to this story is that pools of scientists should be diverse.
Ch 5: Dangerous Desserts" In 1994, Schwan had an outbreak of salmonella poisoning that was tied to their ice cream. Further work by epidemiologists identified "hot" batches that were connected to ice cream mix transported in food trucks that previously had held an egg mix that did not get adequately scoured out. The lesson here was to have super tight control over all links in the supply chain. Schwan ended up buying higher quality transport trucks of their own instead of subcontracting that step.
Ch 6: "The Red Mist" in 2007, a cluster of employees in a MN meat processing plant (pork) were exhibiting peripheral neurological problems. A team of epidemiologists from Mayo observed the assembly line, and their hypothesis was that an aerosol blasting tool for removing brains from the pigs was causing an aerosol spread of the catalyst. They asked the factory managers to immediately stop using that tool. This stopped the spread, but it took more time to back up their hunch with data.
Ch 7: "A Normal Spring" in 1993, there was an uptick of deaths, which led to an investigation. It took some time, but finally hantavirus was the conclusion. (I have a friend living in the TX panhandle whose young daughter died of during this outbreak.) It took a while because this outbreak involved symptoms that were atypical. When there are conditions favorable for increased breeding of mice (mild winter, wet spring creating more food for the mice), then hantavirus increases. Those who work in the soil, clean out barns, or live in mice-infested dwellings are at higher risk.
There is an Afterwards speculating about future outbreaks (!). And a chapter that provides an update for the scientists who worked on the cases discussed in the books. (There was only one woman prominently featured, but I think after COVID-19, we will be getting more young people--including women--entering the field.)
Ch. 1: "Dead Crows Falling from the Sky" describes how in 1999 teams of medical detectives worked separately on a spike of mysterious deaths in the boroughs of NYC. In Queens, a number of older adults who had spent significant time outdoors died of encephalitis, etc. And a large number of birds were dying. Finally, the two teams worked together to determine it was an outbreak of West Nile virus.
Ch. 2 "The McConnon Strain" reviews cases of malaria in Cambodia in the 1970s and the decision of the US government about who could be moved to the Philippines and then to the US. Scientists did a lot of analysis and did not see a pattern in who got infected until they asked locals, who reported that men were running contraband at night in the jungles, which explained the spike.
Ch 3 "Sorrow and Statistics" explains in great detail how data from a pediatric unit in Toronto was analyzed in an attempt to determine if there was a pattern behind higher-than-normal statistics for infant deaths between midnight and 6 am--pointing to a malevolent staff member as the most probably variable.
Ch 4: "Obsession or Inspiration" describes the work behind identifying the 1976 Legionaire's disease outbreak in Philly. After many scientists reaching a dead end, a lone scientist who had a seemingly unrelated skill set ended up identifying the bacteria. The moral to this story is that pools of scientists should be diverse.
Ch 5: Dangerous Desserts" In 1994, Schwan had an outbreak of salmonella poisoning that was tied to their ice cream. Further work by epidemiologists identified "hot" batches that were connected to ice cream mix transported in food trucks that previously had held an egg mix that did not get adequately scoured out. The lesson here was to have super tight control over all links in the supply chain. Schwan ended up buying higher quality transport trucks of their own instead of subcontracting that step.
Ch 6: "The Red Mist" in 2007, a cluster of employees in a MN meat processing plant (pork) were exhibiting peripheral neurological problems. A team of epidemiologists from Mayo observed the assembly line, and their hypothesis was that an aerosol blasting tool for removing brains from the pigs was causing an aerosol spread of the catalyst. They asked the factory managers to immediately stop using that tool. This stopped the spread, but it took more time to back up their hunch with data.
Ch 7: "A Normal Spring" in 1993, there was an uptick of deaths, which led to an investigation. It took some time, but finally hantavirus was the conclusion. (I have a friend living in the TX panhandle whose young daughter died of during this outbreak.) It took a while because this outbreak involved symptoms that were atypical. When there are conditions favorable for increased breeding of mice (mild winter, wet spring creating more food for the mice), then hantavirus increases. Those who work in the soil, clean out barns, or live in mice-infested dwellings are at higher risk.
There is an Afterwards speculating about future outbreaks (!). And a chapter that provides an update for the scientists who worked on the cases discussed in the books. (There was only one woman prominently featured, but I think after COVID-19, we will be getting more young people--including women--entering the field.)
March 26, 2015
I have always really enjoyed medical books, and this is a pretty good one. I found it refreshing that Dr. Levitt did such a good job showcasing the scientists that worked so hard to improve public health. It was nice to see these people get some credit for their work. Also, it was very interesting to see some of the less exotic cases of disease outbreaks in America; it really drives home the point that many of these outbreaks are caused by modern human intervention on the environment.
Overall though, the style writing is a little clunky, but that is the be expected; Alexandra Levitt is a doctor, not a writer.
In addition to this book, I would recommend David Quammen's Spillover. David Quammen is a great medical writer, and fans of this book should check his out as well.
Overall though, the style writing is a little clunky, but that is the be expected; Alexandra Levitt is a doctor, not a writer.
In addition to this book, I would recommend David Quammen's Spillover. David Quammen is a great medical writer, and fans of this book should check his out as well.
January 4, 2021
So... if you’re going to narrate a scientific audiobook, you should learn to pronounce everything. Also, you should have a voice more interesting than Charlie Brown’s Mom. Sigh.
March 11, 2019
A fascinating insight into how epidemiologists solve medical mysteries. The case studies were interesting and very informative (the scientific methods used were described very clearly). However, I didn't like how the author kept dropping tidbits about the doctors and patients every now and then, when reading a book like this I like facts of how the answer/ solution was derived, everything else just distracts from the case being presented.
April 16, 2020
Excellent read and provides important information as to what our public health officials deal with investigate and eliminate threats to us on a regular basis. Yes there are scientific terms but it is very readable and you do not need to be a scientist to enjoy and learn from this book. If nothing else, provides meaningful context to the current pandemic affecting our world. We should celebrate our public health officials more.
July 16, 2020
There are chapters in this book that read like exciting detective stories—numerous victims of an unknown serial killer, confusing clues in unexpected places, a giant jigsaw puzzle to sort through, determined investigators. Thrilling stuff! However, Chapter 6, “ The Red Mist”, is one of the most disgusting tales I have ever read. It follows a search through processing plants for pork products. Enough said.
September 8, 2021
Written before Covid-19 this book somewhat presages the pandemic.
I mostly found it cool how much detail about the investigations and research Levitt tells us, like a murder forensic story. Love the way she identifies to whom we need to be grateful for heading off earlier problems. I want to meet those scientists and doctors as they are celebrities to me!
I mostly found it cool how much detail about the investigations and research Levitt tells us, like a murder forensic story. Love the way she identifies to whom we need to be grateful for heading off earlier problems. I want to meet those scientists and doctors as they are celebrities to me!
November 22, 2023
How. When. Why. Questions answered by scientists detecting Deadly Outbreaks worldwide working out how and why they came to be.
We are creating our own downfall with the way we keep farm animals intensively. As well as eating bush meats and markets selling animals to eat.
Most outbreaks relate to people being in close proximity of animals in crowded cages and not observing good husbandry.
We are creating our own downfall with the way we keep farm animals intensively. As well as eating bush meats and markets selling animals to eat.
Most outbreaks relate to people being in close proximity of animals in crowded cages and not observing good husbandry.
April 8, 2024
I’m an EIS grad so a little biased. However, I always enjoy hearing the details of past outbreak investigations. Thank you for bringing some PR to some of the unsung heroes of public health
November 4, 2025
I struggled with this one mostly for how medically it read. I completely understand that this is a medical themed non-fiction read and I expected as much however, I feel like you need to have a good general scientific/medical background to understand this book without much confusion. I did however, still appreciate what I did learn about these 8 cases of outbreaks from around the world. I learnt a lot and have more appreciation for Medical Detective for the work that goes into investigating these types of situations. It's all quite interesting and informative. I just think for me personally, the language used was quite formal and as a result I found it to be overwhelming.
September 24, 2013
ScienceThrillers.com review: Dr. Alexandra Levitt narrates the true stories of seven medical mysteries solved by field epidemiologists, investigators for the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service. These stories demonstrate the importance, danger, and excitement of public health efforts to understand infectious disease outbreaks and other disease clusters. Levitt unashamedly admits that one goal of this book is to inspire young people to consider careers in public health.
On that count, Deadly Outbreaks succeeds. Put this book in the hands of a high schooler who already is thinking about a STEM career and you might make a convert.
Personally, I love this stuff. Several of these stories I'd heard before (the Sin Nombre virus, Legionnaire's Disease) but I was delighted to read in more detail about the scientist/physician/detectives who actually were on the ground in the center of these outbreaks, trying to assemble the knowledge needed to stop the deaths. Most of the tales were new to me and carried a lot of emotional impact. Babies dying in a Canadian hospital. Laborers paralyzed by work in a pig slaughterhouse.
This is a fascinating book, easy to read in one chapter pieces, perfect for the bedside table. It's competently written but it lacks the narrative genius of a Malcolm Gladwell or Mary Roach popular science book. It also has a fair amount of real science in it. Thus I recommend this book for people who like science especially microbiology, but it might not appeal to readers who do not have a pre-existing interest in the subject matter.
On that count, Deadly Outbreaks succeeds. Put this book in the hands of a high schooler who already is thinking about a STEM career and you might make a convert.
Personally, I love this stuff. Several of these stories I'd heard before (the Sin Nombre virus, Legionnaire's Disease) but I was delighted to read in more detail about the scientist/physician/detectives who actually were on the ground in the center of these outbreaks, trying to assemble the knowledge needed to stop the deaths. Most of the tales were new to me and carried a lot of emotional impact. Babies dying in a Canadian hospital. Laborers paralyzed by work in a pig slaughterhouse.
This is a fascinating book, easy to read in one chapter pieces, perfect for the bedside table. It's competently written but it lacks the narrative genius of a Malcolm Gladwell or Mary Roach popular science book. It also has a fair amount of real science in it. Thus I recommend this book for people who like science especially microbiology, but it might not appeal to readers who do not have a pre-existing interest in the subject matter.
August 14, 2014
Although this book deals with a subject which I find endlessly fascinating, I must conclude it was a disappointment.
The writing is uninspired and sloppy. Perhaps the author would have benefited from a co-author with more varied and interesting prose style, or at least a keen-eyed editor. One glaring mess that stand out in my mind is when a patient with Hanta virus is described as "going into cardiac arrest, and shock." Pretty sure that should be the other way around, which I assume the author knows. Unfortunately, careless errors like that make it hard to lend much credence.
If you do read this book, for the love of god skip the audio version. Narrated by Julie McKay, it is delivered like an instruction manual for assembling furniture. She spells out abbreviations and acronyms constantly ("U-S-A-M-R-I-I-D") instead of utilizing common pronunciations. Her pronunciation of medical terminology leaves a lot to be desired. These things may sound nit-picky, but anyone who reads a lot of audiobooks knows that a narrator can make or break a book!
There are many interesting books on epidemiology; this is just not one of them. "Beating Back the Devil" by Maryn McKenna is a much better book dealing with EIS, and "Spillover" by David Quammen is a really engaging read dealing specifically with diseases that cross over from animal reservoirs. I would recommend both of those a hundred times over "Deadly Outbreaks."
The writing is uninspired and sloppy. Perhaps the author would have benefited from a co-author with more varied and interesting prose style, or at least a keen-eyed editor. One glaring mess that stand out in my mind is when a patient with Hanta virus is described as "going into cardiac arrest, and shock." Pretty sure that should be the other way around, which I assume the author knows. Unfortunately, careless errors like that make it hard to lend much credence.
If you do read this book, for the love of god skip the audio version. Narrated by Julie McKay, it is delivered like an instruction manual for assembling furniture. She spells out abbreviations and acronyms constantly ("U-S-A-M-R-I-I-D") instead of utilizing common pronunciations. Her pronunciation of medical terminology leaves a lot to be desired. These things may sound nit-picky, but anyone who reads a lot of audiobooks knows that a narrator can make or break a book!
There are many interesting books on epidemiology; this is just not one of them. "Beating Back the Devil" by Maryn McKenna is a much better book dealing with EIS, and "Spillover" by David Quammen is a really engaging read dealing specifically with diseases that cross over from animal reservoirs. I would recommend both of those a hundred times over "Deadly Outbreaks."
Read
January 24, 2016Wow! Based on the subtitle here, there's a lot of malevolent stuff out there just waiting to get us. So, despite an overabundance of acronyms and chemistry jargon (which I happily glazed over), this book was just my cup of tea. Each chapter told the compelling story of a set of symptoms, inexplicable deaths, and a medical mystery that needed solving pronto. Author Levitt shows us the day-to-day workings of health care professionals, epidemiologists, and researchers who must think both inside the box and outside while racing the clock to prevent greater disasters. Sometimes it's just as simple as noticing a small detail (why, during an outbreak of what was thought to be St. Louis meningitis in Queens, were so many dead birds found?). Sometimes it was a matter of an agonizingly long wait for lab results and then another wait for a second lab to confirm them. If you enjoy this sort of scientific cliff hanger and want something other than politics, the economy, and what to have for dinner to fret over, give this a try.
(Barbara L., Reader's Services)
(Barbara L., Reader's Services)
April 30, 2018
Los casos son interesantes pero el estilo es soporífero. La autora se da cuenta y trata de amenizar la cuestión incluyendo detalles personales sobre los investigadores que no ayudan para nada.
Yo venía particularmente difícil de encantar porque lo agarré el día que terminé The Next Pandemic, de Ali S. Khan (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...) que es similar y mil veces mejor, y comparado con ese este fue chato y patriótico de más, pero para el capítulo 3 de 7 ya me había acostumbrado al estilo y lo terminé leyendo casi de un tirón.
De todos modos se le nota mucho la falta de pasión. Entiendo que tampoco se le puede pedir lo mismo a un libro contado por un protagonista que a uno como este, escrito por encargo para atraer profesionales al rubro, pero sugeriría leer el otro y si no das más de las ganas de seguir leyendo sobre epidemias misteriosas recién ahí agarrar este.
Yo venía particularmente difícil de encantar porque lo agarré el día que terminé The Next Pandemic, de Ali S. Khan (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...) que es similar y mil veces mejor, y comparado con ese este fue chato y patriótico de más, pero para el capítulo 3 de 7 ya me había acostumbrado al estilo y lo terminé leyendo casi de un tirón.
De todos modos se le nota mucho la falta de pasión. Entiendo que tampoco se le puede pedir lo mismo a un libro contado por un protagonista que a uno como este, escrito por encargo para atraer profesionales al rubro, pero sugeriría leer el otro y si no das más de las ganas de seguir leyendo sobre epidemias misteriosas recién ahí agarrar este.
September 22, 2018
What a page turner! This book introduces several cases in which epidemiologists took on the challenge of finding the source of outbreaks, saving lives at times. One case involves desperate refugees and political controversy. Another involves murder of helpless children. One case is about mysterious neurological condition that kept developing in workers at a slaughterhouse. You may never think of scientists who usually sit in a lab, staring through microscope, or combing through old record for retrospective statistical analysis as any kind of a hero, but The book covers a wide range of cases and keep you interested. I couldn't put it down and finished the whole book in one day (which is surprising because I'm not a fast reader). Highly recommended.
October 30, 2013
I really enjoyed looking at this aspect of medical detection. I'm so used to watching the CSI type shows that it was a welcome change to follow the trail of these "medical detectives" and how they collaborated to find the cause of illnesses. My only (minor) disappointments were that she tended to unnecessarily describe the scientist's looks and personalities (I was more interested in their credentials) and that I was familiar with a number of the cases already (not the author's fault because this is a major area of interest for me).
July 28, 2019
This was a very interesting book ( I actually had the audible audio book but it wasn't uploaded as an edition option on here). The level of detail it went into was quite intense and I understood every term but I am in my final year of a biological sciences degree. The chapter called Red Mist which deals with animal brain matter goes into a very specific and descriptive level of detail. A sensitive reader may wish to skip that chapter. Well worth a read.
March 21, 2014
I thought this was a very interesting book. If you can get past some of the technical information, you can learn about cases like the Schwan's ice cream contamination and Legionnaire's Disease. Each case is a separate chapter, so feel free to skip around or read only certain ones. It creates a desire in you to become a medical detective and help solve where mysterious illnesses develop.
May 3, 2019
A fascinating book about dedicated scientists and physicians that protect us from killer bacteria, viruses and parasites. We all owe them so much for their hard work and dedication in identifying and limiting the spread of these killers. I particularly enjoyed the technical jargon and medical detective work.
December 17, 2013
The author does a decent job of relating the work of the disease detectives, but she just doesn't quite get much suspense into her story. Interesting stories and well told, but alas, she is trying to emulate the great Berton Roueche and she can't quite move beyond her academic approach.
March 9, 2014
Gives a good sense of how complex the hunt for the cause of a disease outbreak can be. The prose is a bit plodding, but it's more thorough than almost any other book of this type. Recommended for everyone. But if, like me, you're a "bug" nut, it's essential reading and belongs in your collection.
September 14, 2014
Não é o livro mais emocionante ou o mais informativo sobre epidemias, mas o assunto nunca é demais. Retrata casos recentes, dá uma perspectiva de quem estava trabalhando com aquilo. Mas recontou várias histórias que já tinha lido em outros livros.
October 7, 2016
Compelling. I have read about most of the disease outbreaks mentioned here before, but material still very readable. Follows the questioning process, epidemiology clues, and frustration of the disease detectives.
July 9, 2017
I'm not a huge fan of non-fiction books in general, but Deadly Outbreaks presented each case like a mystery and clarified the more technical details for the layperson. If you're interested in epidemiology or just plain biology, this should be an entertaining read.
October 29, 2018
Not quite what I was after
I found the book wasn’t what I was after and found it a a bit difficult to get past that the character was pseudonymed as Fran Fine from Flushing, Queens.
Wasn’t a bad book writing style is ok but I didn’t finish it.
I found the book wasn’t what I was after and found it a a bit difficult to get past that the character was pseudonymed as Fran Fine from Flushing, Queens.
Wasn’t a bad book writing style is ok but I didn’t finish it.
July 15, 2019
This was very well-written! Levitt's story telling drew me in immediately and kept the concepts to a public understanding so all can enjoy. I wish these stories went more in depth and that there was more stories she told.
August 9, 2019
Interesting book. I learned a lot about past outbreaks and what public health officials did to stop the spread of disease. I highly recommend if you like health and history and especially if you're a public health nerd.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews