Plague: A Story of Rivalry, Science, and the Scourge That Won't Go Away - Hardcover

Marriott, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805066802 ISBN 13: 9780805066807

Publisher: Metropolitan Books, 2003

Synopsis

A riveting account, at once a reconstruction of the race to find a cure, a history of bubonic plague, and an investigation into the threat of plague today
Plague. The very word carries an unholy resonance. No other disease can claim its apocalyptic or mythological power. It can lie dormant for centuries, only to resurface with ferocious, nation-killing force. Here, with the high drama of a great adventure tale, Edward Marriott unravels the story of this lethal disease: the historic battle to identify its source, the devastating effects of pandemics, and the prospects for the next outbreak.
Through a range of primary sources, Marriott takes us back to Hong Kong in the summer of 1894, when a diagnosis of plague brought two top scientists to the island-Alexandre Yersin, a lone, maverick Frenchman, and his eminent rival, the Japanese Shibasaburo Kitasato. Marriott interweaves his narrative of their fierce competition to discover the plague's source with vivid scenes of the scourge's persistence: California in 1900, when plague arrived in the United States; Surat, India, in 1994, where torrential floods drowned millions of rats, causing the worst epidemic in seventy years; and New York City, some time in the future, where there is a rat for every human being, a diminishing budget for pest control, and an emerging strain of plague that is resistant to antibiotics.
A masterly recounting of medical and human history, Plague is an instructive warning, a gripping account of history, and a chilling read.

About this title

About the Author

Edward Marriott is the author of Savage Shore (0-8050-5556-8) and The Lost Tribe (0-8050-6449-4), a New York Times Best Travel Book. A recipient of the Thomas Cook and Banff Awards, he lives in London, where he contributes regularly to the BBC, the Times, and Esquire magazine.

Reviews

A scourge of epic proportions, the plague raced through medieval Europe and Asia, killing millions. By the early 20th century, medical science confidently considered the rapacious disease under control. In 1996, however, the World Health Organization-which had recorded 24,000 plague cases over the previous 15 years-reclassified the plague as a "re-emerging disease." Various cultures in the past explained the pestilence as punishment from the gods, but it was not until the late 19th century in Hong Kong that two scientists isolated the bacteriological causes of the disease. Marriott's thrilling medical detective story re-creates vividly the challenges that the Japanese researcher Shibasaburo Kitasato and French bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin faced in Hong Kong in their race for an explanation and a cure. In 1894, Kitasato arrived first to find that the island's colonial authority had refused to accept the first signs of the plague that now ravaged Hong Kong. Kitasato was world-renowned for his research skills, and the British government allowed him unrestricted access to patients and to supplies. Although Yersin discovered the bacillus causing the plague, Kitasato published his findings (which turned out to be incorrect) first in the medical journals. Yersin went on to discover a vaccine for the plague, which he began administering in India in 1898. Later scientists discovered that rats carried plague, and subsequent campaigns to rid cities of rats followed. Marriott weaves an engrossing story of a 1994 plague outbreak in India into the chronicle of Yersin and Kitasato as an indication of how plague sits on our doorsteps waiting for the right opportunity to strike, in spite of the great advances of medicine.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A contemporary history of the plague, from 1894, when top scientists Alexandre Yersin and Shibasaburo Kitasato vied to discover the source of a Hong Kong outbreak, to contemporary New York, which has as many rats as peopleDeven as a strain of the disease is becoming resistant to antibiotics.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is a tale of two outbreaks of plague. In 1894, the malady spread from Canton, China, to Hong Kong. Out-of-their-depths colonial authorities called in two infectious disease experts sharply different in personality and procedure. Koch-trained Shibasaburo Kitasato came with a team, was effusively welcomed, and announced he had discovered the blameworthy bacillus within a week. Pasteur protege Alexandre Yersin arrived and worked alone, was snubbed and obstructed, and found the real microbial culprit. The scientists' competition is the stuff of movies, gripping even though Marriott reveals the ending early. From 1890s Hong Kong, Marriott regularly flashes forward to Surat, India, in 1994, where casualties were slight, but popular reaction was brutal, including looting, arson, and assault on refugees from the panicked city. Marriott's focal character in Surat is a journalist whose wife flees with their infant daughter--another should-be-filmed scenario. Marriott adds punch with bits of old plague history and consideration of the state of plague (un)readiness in a potential hotspot--New York--that could make anyone rethink that Manhattan weekend getaway. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Plague:
By Wednesday evening eight people were suddenly dead, although speculation had pumped this figure to nearer one hundred. To every death there was a common theme: the afflicted were all young, or at least in early middle-age. Soon there was a growing crowd outside Surat's New Civil Hospital. Wards were close to capacity, the wail of ambulance sirens was audible across town. In the main lobby a huge concrete concourse, with rusty splashes of betel phlegm along the walls—crowds were fighting to get to the drug counters. From the balcony above, a line of doctors scanned the melee: dressed head to toe in white, their faces masked, only their dark eyes visible. "As if the deaths were not bad enough," said Dr. Shailendra Vajpeyee, "no one had any idea of the cause." An emergency meeting was called. Senior doctors, surgeons and administrators argued furiously. One said it was dengue fever, another a mutant strain of malaria. A third carried news from a nearby hospital, where two more people had died, both with the same symptoms. Finally, into a room suddenly silent, one of the doctors spoke softly, with certainty. "It's the plague."

Edition details

• Publisher: Metropolitan Books
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805066802
• ISBN 13: 9780805066807
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320