The arrested epidemic
"You are here because of your ancestors' immune systems." Thus begins the non-fiction China Syndrome. Greenfeld, as the editor of the Asian edition of Time Magazine, was on the spot and with good sources when the SARS epidemic started in China. As a public health professional, I found his step-by-step, chronological account very satisfying. SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) killed 11 percent of its eight thousand victims and spread quickly to 32 countries via airline travel. That good public health measures, already known in the nineteenth century, stopped the epidemic before it became the first great pandemic of the century is very encouraging, given that such outbreaks (and worse) are inevitable. Technical accounts are available (World Health Organization, Harvard Magazine), but this is a good introduction. Although the account is given in a calm, non-sensation style, a few pages are not for the faint of heart. Highly recommended.
