The 2014 Ebola epidemic demonstrated the power of pandemics and their ability not only to destroy lives locally but also to capture imaginations worldwide. Pandemics: A Very Short Introduction provides a concise yet comprehensive account of pandemics throughout human history, illustrating the ways in which pandemic disease—including plague, tuberculosis, malaria, smallpox, cholera, influenza, and HIV/AIDS—has shaped history and how human history has shaped pandemic disease. By considering the explosion of medical research and the varying state responses, such as quarantine and travel restrictions, this Very Short Introduction shows why pandemics are both interesting from a medical standpoint and provide insight into the culture and politics of their time.
In the fifteen years following World War II more was done to combat tuberculosis than at any other time in world history. On every continent, hundreds of millions received the BCG (Bacillus Calmette Guérin) vaccine and millions more benefited from newly discovered antibiotics. TB research and attempts to control the disease knit together disparate populations and places as a network of experts and a matrix of ideas spread out across the globe linking the world through a common vaccine, a battery of antibiotics, and a knowledge Acknowledgments: Niels Brimnes wishes to express his gratitude to the Danish Research Council
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