Books like The coming plague by Laurie Garrett

Richard Preston’s "Panic in Level 4" surveys real‑world biological mysteries—from self‑cannibalism to Ebola’s elusive host—revealing how scientists confront and uncover the secrets behind deadly pathogens.

An engaging primer on viruses, covering their nature, discovery, the diseases they cause, prevention through vaccines, and ongoing research efforts.

A sixteen‑year‑old and his classmates survive a zombie invasion in the woods, discovering that their caretakers have become flesh‑eating maniacs.

Laura Spinney’s *Pale Rider* presents the 1918–1920 Spanish flu pandemic—a global catastrophe that claimed up to a hundred million lives—through interdisciplinary research in history, virology, and epidemiology.

Journalist Mark Manning, his lover architect Neil Waite, and nephew‑ward Thad Quatrain host the wedding of their friend Roxanne Exner in Dumont, Wisconsin, only to discover a fatal electrocution that turns a local matron dead and Roxanne into the prime suspect. Amid campaign politics and a desperate race to solve the murder, Mark must unravel a twisted puzzle to clear her name and protect the town’s future.

The strange new disease SARS erupted apparently out of nowhere and has spread at an astonishing rate. Scary as SARS itself is, the disease is also a warning of many possible such outbreaks to come. Featuring the disturbing story of SARS-where it came from, what it is, and how to protect yourself from it-as well as those of many other recently evolved deadly scourges, The New Killer Diseases is a shocking call to arms. All around us-in our homes, workplaces, and public spaces-bacteria and viruses are evolving at a feverish rate, and our best defenses against them are in danger of being overwhelmed. The threat posed by emerging infectious diseases is as formidable as any challenge the human race has ever faced, and the evolutionary scales may be tipping in favor of the microbes.

When a teenage girl in New York City dies in a gruesome fashion, a CDC forensic pathologist uncovers a biological attack that sparks a federal crisis.

In the Arctic’s frozen depths, a blazing submarine and its crew face imminent loss while a bio‑terror expert races to rescue them before a deadly, ancient plague resurfaces—and threatens humanity.

When travelers bring a deadly plague to New York City, a WHO immunologist and a local doctor must race to identify and contain the outbreak amid riots, sabotage, and a high‑stakes quarantine.

At head of title: Paul De Kruif."First edition." Prologue.--Three doctors: Semmelweis, saver of mothers. Banting, who found insulin. Minot, against death.--Red brick building on the hill: Spencer, in the happy valley. Evans, death in milk. McCoy, should generals die in bed?--Machine medicine: Schaudinn, the pale horror. Bordet, prophet of doom. Wagner-Jauregg, the friendly fever.--Old doctor sun: Finsen, the light hunter. Rollier, the sun doctor. Strandberg, machine sunlight.--Epilogue.

Smallpox – the only human infectious disease eradicated – devastated populations with brutal skin eruptions and high mortality. This account chronicles its history, the efforts to eliminate it, and the continuing threats it poses.

"Garrett exposes the underbelly of the world's globalization: If India's economy is prospering, for example, how can there coexist with this new affluence an outbreak of pneumonic plague, a disease long thought to have been relegated to the history books? In Russia, alcoholism, drug addiction, TB, and the effects of such catastrophes as Chernobyl have shortened life expectancy for the average man by a full decade since 1991. In the United States, we face new "superstrains" of diseases we thought had been wiped out long ago. In addition, global travel has made it nearly impossible to keep what were once considered "third world diseases" out of our country. Has our public health system let us down, and if so, how serious is the danger to our collective health?"--BOOK JACKET.

In each true story, local health authorities and epidemiologists race against time to find the clue to an unknown and possibly fatal disease.

C. J. Peters has been on the front lines of our biological battle against "hot" viruses around the world for three decades. In the course of that career he has learned countless lessons about our interspecies turf wars with infectious agents: the terrifying symptoms and sometimes fatal diseases different virus families and strains cause, the importance of finding out how a virus is spread, as well as identifying the virus reservoir - the species of insect or animal where the virus hides. Called in to contain an outbreak of deadly hemorrhagic fever in Bolivia, he confronts the despair of trying to save a colleague who accidentally infects himself with an errant scalpel. Working in Level 4 labs on the Machupo and Ebola viruses, he shows time and again why expensive high-tech biohazard containment equipment is only as safe as the people who use it. From Central and South Africa to a deadly outbreak of a mystery virus in the American Southwest, from fieldwork in Egypt and the mountains of Kenya to immobilizing an army unit to stop a gut-wrenching outbreak of Ebola only miles from Washington, D.C., Virus Hunter takes us backstage in the inevitable clash between biology and human lives. Nor, Peters warns, despite the explosion of recent news on viruses, is the danger over. Because of new, emerging viruses, and the return of old, "vanquished" ones for which vaccines do not exist, there remains a very real danger of a new epidemic that could, without proper surveillance and early intervention, spread worldwide virtually overnight. And the possibility of foreign countries of terrorist groups using deadly airborne viruses that are easily obtained rather than unwieldy explosives looms larger than ever in the future.

Virus X exposes the hidden world of deadly outbreaks, revealing how new, lethal diseases may emerge and the scientific race to stop them, while urging readers to act against the threats our fragile ecosystems face.

Infectious disease has the terrifying power to disrupt everyday life on a global scale, overwhelming public and private resources and bringing trade and transportation to a halt. In today's world, it's easier than ever to move people, animals, and materials around the planet, but the same advances that make modern infrastructure so efficient have made epidemics and even pandemics nearly inevitable. So what can -- and must -- we do in order to protect ourselves? Drawing on the latest medical science, case studies, and policy research, Deadliest enemy explores the resources and programs we need to develop if we are to keep ourselves safe from infectious disease.

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. -- Jacket.