The Fatal Strain: On the Trail of Avian Flu and the Coming Pandemic

Add to Wishlist

The Fatal Strain: On the Trail of Avian Flu and the Coming Pandemic

eBook

$4.99

View All Available Formats & Editions

eBook
$4.99

View All Available Formats & Editions

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.

WANT A NOOK? Explore Now

Buy As Gift

Related collections and offers

Overview

In 2009, Swine Flu reminded us that pandemics still happen, and award- winning journalist Alan Sipress reminds us that far worse could be brewing. When a highly lethal strain of avian flu broke out in Asia in 2003 and raced westward, Sipress, as a reporter for The Washington Post, tracked the virus across nine countries, watching its secrets elude the world's brightest scientists and most intrepid disease hunters. A vivid portrayal of the struggle between man and microbe, The Fatal Strain is a fast-moving account that weaves cultural, political, and scientific strands into a tale of inevitable pandemic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101145517
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/12/2009
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	668 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Alan Sipress is economics editor at The Washington Post and a longtime foreign correspondent, based most recently in Southeast Asia. In 2005, a Post team he anchored was awarded the Jesse Laventhol Prize for Deadline Writing for coverage of the South Asian tsunami. This is his first book. He lives in Washington, D.C.

What People are Saying About This

Michael T. Osterholm

"The Fatal Strain reads like a gripping medical mystery novel-only it is not. It is the true story of the scary world of pandemic influenza expertly written by one of the leading 'flu journalists' of our time. Although the H1N1 (swine) influenza pandemic is unfolding before us, we must not take our eye off of avian influenza, as it very well may lead to a deadly 'one-two pandemic punch.' Anyone who cares about what might happen to their loved ones, friends or colleagues should read this book."--(Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH. Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota)

Pete Davies

Alan Sipress has produced a vivid and enthralling story that could not be more timely. Ever evolving, ever elusive, influenza threatens us on a scale far worse than anything we've yet seen. Sipress pursues the deadly strain through Asia with tenacious energy, revealing the true scale of the danger, and the terrifying inadequacy of our readiness to face it. (Pete Davies, Author of Devil's Flu and Inside the Hurricane)

John M. Barry

This is a book about much more than a lethal threat from the influenza virus. It's about the fog of war, about reality, about the gap between those who make plans and those who carry them out. And ultimately it's about heroism and determination. There are lessons here for everyone, and in compelling fashion this book drives those lessons home. (John M. Barry, author of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.)

From the Publisher

"[A] superb and sobering book." —-Washington Post

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

The bad news, says Alan Sipress in his superb and sobering book about the shadowy progression of a virulent avian flu now moving across Asia, is that the worst is yet to come. Sipress…is uniquely positioned to tell this story. He's intimately familiar with the region, having served as a correspondent in South Asia during the devastating recent tsunami. And his grasp of virology, as well as of the ins and outs of the world health bureaucracy, serves him well in explaining why medical practices that appear so obvious to Western experts in containing a deadly epidemic are largely irrelevant to "the backyard chicken farmers, cockfighters, witch doctors, political bosses, and poultry smugglers" who control the terrain where this battle must be fought.
—The Washington Post

David Oshinsky

A grim, harrowing account of what is happening-and not happening-in Southeast Asia as countries confront bird flu. Former Washington Post business editor and foreign correspondent Sipress spent years following human outbreaks of bird flu in mainland China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia as the disease relentlessly moved west. The culprit was the virulent H5N1 influenza virus, which has ravaged geese, ducks, other wild fowl, the roosters groomed for cockfighting and, most importantly, domestic chickens, transmitting disease to human bird handlers or consumers. Like all flu viruses, H5N1 is quick to mutate or mix genes with other flu viruses, meaning that it can develop resistance to drugs or vaccines. In some places it may have already become asymptomatic in birds, which makes checking the source of a human outbreak, already problematic, even more formidable. The critical question is when a mutation will ease human-to-human transmission. That will be the takeoff point for a pandemic that will dwarf the mortality of the 1918 flu epidemic. The World Health Organization and other global health leaders, as well as the many epidemiologists and virologists tracking the virus, are convinced that it is not question of if but when. The reasons vary: the globalization of commerce and travel means that all parts of the world are connected within hours; a growing middle class in developing countries is eating more meat, and poultry conglomerates have risen to meet the need, in some cases conspiring with governments to suppress news of poultry disease and required bird cullings; developing countries are still too poor to cope with epidemic disease or vaccinations. Some have pledged notto cooperate in disease surveillance, blaming the West for taking their virus samples to make drugs or vaccines that are too expensive for them. There is still much to be learned about the virus, and Sipress's sketches of the heroic men and women at the frontlines enrich the narrative, even as he expertly details the obstacles posed when a disease becomes a matter of politics, commerce and culture clash. Exemplary-and highly frightening-investigative reporting. Author events around Washington, D.C. Agent: Rafe Sagalyn/The Sagalyn Agency

Kirkus Reviews

[A] superb and sobering book.

Washington Post

"This is a book about much more than a lethal threat from the influenza virus. It's about the fog of war, about reality, about the gap between those who make plans and those who carry them out. And ultimately it's about hero'sm and determination. There are lessons here for everyone, and in compelling fashion this book drives those lessons home."——John M. Barry, author of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
“Alan Sipress has produced a vivid and enthralling story that could not be more timely. Ever evolving, ever elusive, influenza threatens us on a scale far worse than anything we've yet seen. Sipress pursues the deadly strain through Asia with tenacious energy, revealing the true scale of the danger, and the terrifying inadequacy of our readiness to face it.”——Pete Davies, Author of Devil’s Flu and Inside the Hurricane

“The Fatal Strain reads like a gripping medical mystery novel-only it is not. It is the true story of the scary world of pandemic influenza expertly written by one of the leading ‘flu journalists’ of our time. Although the H1N1 (swine) influenza pandemic is unfolding before us, we must not take our eye off of avian influenza, as it very well may lead to a deadly “one-two pandemic punch.” Anyone who cares about what might happen to their loved ones, friends or colleagues should read this book.”——Michael T. Osterholm PhD, MPH., Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota

“Masterfully paced, gripping work”——Seed

“Exemplary—and highly frightening—investigative reporting.”——Kirkus (starred review)

“Timely, given today’s headline-bursting thread of swine flu (H1N1). It is…a cautionary tale [as] influenza is about politics.”——Booklist

From the Publisher