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Are You Ready? : An in-Depth Guide to Disaster Preparedness
Everything You Need to Know to Prepare for and Recover from Dozens of Natural and Man-Made Disasters and Threats! Are You Ready? is an all-encompassing practical guide for individuals and their families to preparing for all types of hazards and emergencies. It can be used as a reference or a step-by-step guide to developing, practicing, and maintaining emergency plans. It provides information, checklists, educational materials, and graphics to help you effectively plan for before, during, and after any kind of disaster. Topics covered include: * Creating a disaster supplies kit * Dealing with natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, and tornadoes * Responding to technological hazards such as hazardous materials incidents and nuclear or chemical emergencies * General information about terrorism
Be Ready for Anything : How to Survive Tornadoes, Earthquakes, Pandemics, Mass Shootings, Nuclear Disasters, and Other Life-Threatening Events
Will you be a ready for a dozen different kinds of disasters, including hurricanes, civil unrest, mass shootings, and wildfires? You want to be prepared for whatever emergencies come your way. While prepping for a dozen different disasters may sound like a daunting task, there's good news. Preparing for a wide variety of disasters requires the same basic supplies as preparing for one or two. For each event, there will be some special steps, unique information, and precautions you need to take, along with a few additional supplies, but your essentials will be the same. Learn how to prepare for: Earthquakes Tornadoes Hurricanes Winter Storms Wildfire Evacuations Pandemics Nuclear Disasters Mass Shootings Civil Unrest Economic Crises And More! With directions, helpful appendices, checklists, and general guidance to getting prepped, this book will get you away from panic and straight to safety.
The Black Death
The Black Death is the name most commonly given to the pandemic of bubonic plague that ravaged the medieval world in the late 1340s. From Central Asia, the plague swept through Europe, leaving millions of dead in its wake. Between a quarter and a third of Europe's population died, and in England the population fell from nearly six million to just over three million. Sean Martin looks at the origins of the disease and traces its terrible march through Europe from the Italian cities to the far-flung corners of Scandinavia. He describes contemporary responses to the plague and makes clear how helpless the medicine of the day was in the face of it. He examines the renewed persecution of the Jews, blamed by many Christians for the spread of the disease, and highlights the bizarre attempts by such groups as the Flagellants to ward off what they saw as the wrath of God.
Contagion and Chaos: Disease, Ecology, and National Security in the Era of Globalization
Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2009. Historians from Thucydides to William McNeill have pointed to the connections between disease and civil society. Political scientists have investigated the relationship of public health to governance, introducing the concept of health security. In Contagion and Chaos,Andrew Price-Smith offers the most comprehensive examination yet of disease through the lens of national security. Extending the analysis presented in his earlier book The Health of Nations,Price-Smith argues that epidemic disease represents a direct threat to the power of a state, eroding prosperity and destabilizing both its internal politics and its relationships with other states. He contends that the danger of an infectious pathogen to national security depends on lethality, transmissability, fear, and economic damage. Moreover, warfare and ecological change contribute to the spread of disease and act as "disease amplifiers." Price-Smith presents a series of case studies to illustrate his argument: the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-19 (about which he advances the controversial claim that the epidemic contributed to the defeat of Germany and Austria); HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa (he contrasts the worst-case scenario of Zimbabwe with the more stable Botswana); bovine spongiform encephalopathy (also known as Mad Cow Disease); and the SARS contagion of 2002-03. Emerging infectious disease continues to present a threat to national and international security, Price-Smith argues, and globalization and ecological change only accelerate the danger.
Defining Documents in World History: Pandemics, Plagues & Public Health
Plagues and pandemics are a part of global history, from the biblical “plague of locusts” to today’s COVID-19 pandemic. Dealing with unchecked diseases and disasters has given rise to great human suffering and loss of life, but it has also played a significant role in shaping our societies. Advances in public health, medicine, scientific research, and even the arts have often been inspired by or required of those who have survived. This two-volume set includes content on the Black Death, smallpox, the plague, malaria, typhoid, polio, SARS, AIDS, COVID-19, and others. Documents included in Defining Documents in World History: Pandemics, Plagues & Public Health comprise political speeches, newspaper articles, medical advances, legislation, arranged chronologically.
Emerging Epidemics: Management and Control
A global perspective on the management and prevention of emerging and re-emerging diseases. Emerging infectious diseases are newly identified or otherwise previously unknown infections that cause public health challenges. Re-emerging infectious diseases are due to both the reappearance of and an increase in the number of infections from a disease that is known, but which had formerly caused so few infections that it was no longer considered a public health problem. The factors that cause the emergence or re-emergence of a disease are diverse. This book takes a look at the world's emerging and re-emerging diseases. It covers the diagnosis, therapy, prevention, and control of a variety of individual diseases, and examines the social and behavioral issues that could contribute to epidemics.
Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present
Editor Joseph P. Byrne, together with an advisory board of specialists and over 100 scholars, research scientists, and medical practitioners from 13 countries, has produced a uniquely interdisciplinary treatment of the ways in which diseases pestilence, and plagues have affected human life. From the Athenian flu pandemic to the Black Death to AIDS, this extensive two-volume set offers a sociocultural, historical, and medical look at infectious diseases and their place in human history from Neolithic times to the present. Nearly 300 entries cover individual diseases (such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, Ebola, and SARS); major epidemics (such as the Black Death, 16th-century syphilis, cholera in the nineteenth century, and the Spanish Flu of 1918-19); environmental factors (such as ecology, travel, poverty, wealth, slavery, and war); and historical and cultural effects of disease (such as the relationship of Romanticism to Tuberculosis, the closing of London theaters during plague epidemics, and the effect of venereal disease on social reform). Primary source sidebars, over 70 illustrations, a glossary, and an extensive print and nonprint bibliography round out the work.
Epidemics: Science, Governance and Social Justice
Recent disease events such as SARS, H1N1 and avian influenza, and haemorrhagic fevers have focused policy and public concern as never before on epidemics and so-called 'emerging infectious diseases'. Understanding and responding to these often unpredictable events have become major challenges for local, national and international bodies. All too often, responses can become restricted by implicit assumptions about who or what is to blame that may not capture the dynamics and uncertainties at play in the multi-scale interactions of people, animals and microbes. As a result, policies intended to forestall epidemics may fail, and may even further threaten health, livelihoods and human rights. The book takes a unique approach by focusing on how different policy-makers, scientists, and local populations construct alternative narratives-accounts of the causes and appropriate responses to outbreaks- about epidemics at the global, national and local level. The contrast between emergency-oriented, top-down responses to what are perceived as potentially global outbreaks and longer-term approaches to diseases, such as AIDS, which may now be considered endemic, is highlighted. Case studies-on avian influenza, SARS, obesity, H1N1 influenza, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and haemorrhagic fevers-cover a broad historical, geographical and biological range. As this book explores, it is often the most vulnerable members of a population-the poor, the social excluded and the already ill-who are likely to suffer most from epidemic diseases. At the same time, they may be less likely to benefit from responses that may be designed from a global perspective that neglects social, ecological and political conditions on the ground. This book aims to bring the focus back to these marginal populations to reveal the often unintended consequences of current policy responses to epidemics. Important implications emerge - for how epidemics are thought about and represented; for how surveillance and response is designed; and for whose knowledge and perspectives should be included.
Global Pandemics and Epidemics and How They Relate to You
This special edition provides information about widespread disease outbreaks and their associated threats, as well as information about disease management and advice about what to do when infectious diseases spread rapidly to many people.
The H1N1 Influenza Pandemic Of 2009
This book provides a synopsis of key events, actions taken, and authorities invoked by WHO, the U.S. federal government, and state and local governments to determine and mitigate the phases of a flu pandemic. Additionally, this book addresses select legal issues in relation to the pandemic including emergency measures, civil rights, liability, and employment issues. Also discussed is the U.S. response to global human cases, mandatory vaccination precedents, the potential farm sector effects of "swine flu", and the Department of Defense's role during a flu pandemic.
Influenza and Public Health
Major influenza pandemics pose a constant threat. As evidenced by recent H5N1 avian flu and novel H1N1, influenza outbreaks can come in close succession, yet differ in their transmission and impact. With accelerated levels of commercial and population mobility, new forms of flu virus can also spread across the globe with unprecedented speed. Responding quickly and adequately to each outbreak becomes imperative on the part of governments and global public health organizations, but the difficulties of doing so are legion. One tool for pandemic planning is analysis of responses to past pandemics that provide insight into productive ways forward.This book investigates past influenza pandemics in light of today's, so as to afford critical insights into possible transmission patterns, experiences, mistakes, and interventions. It explores several pandemics over the past century, from the infamous 1918 Spanish Influenza, the avian flu epidemic of 2003, and the novel H1N1 pandemic of 2009, to lesser-known outbreaks such as the 1889-90 influenza pandemic and the Hong Kong Flu of 1968. Contributors to the volume examine cases from a wide range of disciplines, including history, sociology, epidemiology, virology, geography, and public health, identifying patterns that cut across pandemics in order to guide contemporary responses to infectious outbreaks.
Pandemic Planning
Preparedness and rigorous planning on community, state, and regional levels are critical to containing the threat of pandemic illness. Steeped in research and recommendations from lessons learned, Pandemic Planning describes the processes necessary for the efficient and effective preparation, prevention, response, and recovery from a pandemic threat. This evidence-based book guides plan development and provides solutions to common strategic, ethical, and practical challenges to pandemic preparedness. Topics discussed include: The current threat of pandemics and how they relate to homeland security and emergency management Leadership and incident management structure as they relate to pandemic preparedness Computer simulation models and data visualization for strengthening prevention and control measures within a community Marketing principles and how they promote pandemic preparedness for a community Lessons learned from pandemic influenza exercises conducted with regional hospitals and how those lessons can be applied to other institutions Government resources available to assist with the planning for and monitoring of a pandemic event Economic and logistic concerns that arise during a pandemic Discussing preparedness across a variety of institutional levels, the authors' collaboration with national research leaders and community stakeholders has enabled them to assemble the most current and essential information available on pandemic preparedness. Their book distills this information into workable strategies to bolster public health, mitigate risk, and protect the population.
Pandemics: The Invisible Enemy
Pandemics: The Invisible Enemy features important information on pandemics throughout world history. This content will help provide a deeper understanding of the health and societal impacts of pandemics from an historical perspective.
Pandemics and Global Health
This is a comprehensive resource on the pandemics that threaten our world. Throughout history, pandemics have rapidly spread across national and continental borders to inflict an insurmountable toll on human life and suffering. From the Black Death in Asia and Europe to the smallpox and polio outbreaks that decimated the Americas, to the contemporary concerns over HIV/AIDS and the avian flu, epidemics have been a continuous threat to society and the world. "Pandemics and Global Health" begins with an introduction that reviews major types of infectious agents and modes of transmission and then provides a historical overview of infectious diseases and our attempts to control epidemics. The introduction is followed by detailed case studies of the United States, China, Africa, and India. Each of these case studies outlines a recent outbreak and the government's response, demonstrating the need for transparency, government commitment, and adequate financing in the fight against major diseases. Gathering key information on many contemporary international public health issues, this is a valuable resource for anyone wanting to become more informed on global health concerns.
Plagues & Poxes : The Impact of Human History on Epidemic Disease
"Since publication of the initial version of Plagues & Poxes in 1987, which had the optimistic subtitle "The Rise and Fall of Epidemic Disease," the rise of new diseases such as AIDS and the deliberate modification and weaponization of diseases such as anthrax have changed the way we perceive infectious disease. With major modifications to deal with this new reality, the acclaimed author of Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs has updated and revised this series of essays about changing disease patterns in history and some of the key events and people involved in them. It deals with the history of major outbreaks of disease - both infectious diseases such as plague and smallpox and noninfectious diseases - and shows how they are in many cases caused inadvertently by human actions, including warfare, commercial travel, social adaptations, and dietary modifications. To these must now be added discussion of the intentional spreading of disease by acts of bioterrorism, and the history and knowledge of those diseases that are thought to be potential candidates for intentional spread by bioterrorists. Among the many topics discussed are: How the spread of smallpox and measles among previously unexposed populations in the Americas, the introduction of malaria and yellow fever from Africa via the importation of slaves into the Western hemisphere, and the importation of syphilis to Europe all are related to the modern interchange of diseases such as AIDS. How the ever-larger populations in the cities of Europe and North America gave rise to "crowd diseases" such as polio by permitting the existence of sufficient numbers of non-immune people in sufficient numbers to keep the diseases from dying out. How the domestication of animals allowed diseases of animals to affect humans, or perhaps become genetically modified to become epidemic human diseases. Why the concept of deficiency diseases was not understood before the early twentieth century disease, after all, was the presence of something abnormal, how could it be due to the absence of something? In fact, the first epidemic disease in human history probably was iron deficiency anemia. How changes in the availability and nature of specific foods have affected the size of population groups and their health throughout history. The introduction of potatoes to Ireland and corn to Europe, and the relationship between the modern technique of rice milling and beriberi, all illustrate the fragile nutritional state that results when any single vegetable crop is the main source of food. Why biological warfare is not a new phenomenon. There have been attempts to intentionally cause epidemic disease almost since the dawn of recorded history, including the contamination of wells and other water sources of armies and civilian populations of course, the spread of smallpox to Native Americans during the French and Indian War is known to every schoolchild. With our increased technology, it is not surprising that we now have to deal with problems such as weaponized spores of anthrax."
Prepper's Pantry : Build a Nutritious Stockpile to Survive Blizzards, Blackouts, Hurricanes, Pandemics, Economic Collapse, or Any Other Disasters
A necessary addition to any prepper's or survivalists's shelf! A one-year food supply means freedom. It means that you are less subject to the whims of the economy or personal financial emergencies. You can handle small disasters with aplomb. You aren't reliant on the government if a crisis strikes. You can't be manipulated because your family is hungry. This edition provides to a detailed compendium of all things food storage. Geared towards preppers, it teaches you: Why everyone needs a food supply in their homes How much food you need How your pantry is directly related to your health The components of a perfect pantry Prepping for those with dietary restrictions A thrifty new way of shopping so you can afford to build your pantry How to store the food you purchase to extend the shelf life for as long as possible A week-by-week plan, complete with shopping lists and menu ideas How to save money by making items most people purchase ready-made at the store Pantry inventory and maintenance Where to store all of that food Bonus: 25 frugal and delicious recipes If you're new at this, you can take the most important step today--the step of getting started. You'll have a year's supply of food in no time at all!
Public Health Emergency Preparedness
Public Health Emergency Preparedness: Practical Applications for the Real World is a comprehensive examination of the critical competencies necessary to prepare for and respond to Public Health emergencies.Starting with a historical context of the early preparedness need, the book defines emergency preparedness and the legal framework for the field. The book goes on to cover the full range of the field from hazards and threats to considerations for leadership development in the field. It includes information on roles and responsibilities of local, state, and national organizations, the cycle of practice for preparedness officials, as well as principles of incident management and response; and finally, considerations for leadership development in the field.With real-world stories and anecdotes throughout, the authors synthesize a wealth of material in an easy-to-read format that stimulates learning and provokes reflection about emergency preparedness.
Rhetoric of a Global Epidemic : Transcultural Communication about SARS
2016 CCCC Best Book Award in Technical and Scientific Communication In the past ten years, we have seen great changes in the ways government organizations and media respond to and report on emerging global epidemics. The first outbreak to garner such attention was SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). In Rhetoric of a Global Epidemic, Huiling Ding uses SARS to explore how various cultures and communities made sense of the epidemic and communicated about it. She also investigates the way knowledge production and legitimation operate in global epidemics, the roles that professionals and professional communicators, as well as individual citizens, play in the communication process, points of contention within these processes, and possible entry points for ethical and civic intervention. Focusing on the rhetorical interactions among the World Health Organization, the United States, China, and Canada, Rhetoric of a Global Epidemic investigates official communication and community grassroots risk tactics employed during the SARS outbreak. It consists of four historical cases, which examine the transcultural risk communication about SARS in different geopolitical regions at different stages. The first two cases deal with risk communication practices at the early stage of the SARS epidemic when it originated in southern China. The last two cases move to transcultural rhetorical networks surrounding SARS. With such threats as SARS, avian flu, and swine flu capturing the public imagination and prompting transnational public health preparedness efforts, the need for a rhetoric of global epidemics has never been greater. Government leaders, public health officials, health care professionals, journalists, and activists can learn how to more effectively craft and manage transcultural risk communication from Ding's examination of the complex and varied modes of communication around SARS. In addition to offering a detailed case study, Rhetoric of a Global Epidemic provides a critical methodology that professional communicators can use in their investigations of epidemics and details approaches to facilitating more open, participatory risk communication at all levels.
Vaccinations
While most Americans participate in vaccination, for a small number of Americans, vaccination is perceived as a threat and possibly even a conspiracy. This volume looks at the history of vaccination as well as the regulation and administrative processes surrounding the creation and dissemination of vaccines. The cost and availability of vaccines in American communities is examined, as well as laws regarding childhood vaccination and access to schooling and other public facilities.
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The Black Death
Probably the greatest natural disaster to ever curse humanity, the Black Death's lethality is legendary, killing between a quarter to over half of any given stricken area's population. Though historians suspect a first wave of bubonic plague struck the Mediterranean area between 571 - 760 C.E., there is no doubt that the plague was carried west by the Mongol Golden Horde in the late 1340s as they raided as far west as Constantinople, where it is believed that Genoese traders became infected, and then carried, the disease into European and northern African ports after their escape. Within about two years practically the entire European continent and much of North Africa had been burned over by this disaster of apocalyptic proportions. Eight thematic chapters guide the reader through the medical perspective of the plague-- medieval and modern--and to the plague's impact on society, cities, individuals, and art of the time. Medieval doctors named miasmatic vapors--bad air --as a primary cause of infection, along with an improper balance of the four Humors--blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile, often caused by ominous astrological alignments; or so they believed. Scapegoats, often Jews, were persecuted and murdered as frightened people desperately sought somebody to blame for the spread of the plague. Others assumed the plague was God's punishment of wicked humanity, and roamed the countryside in groups that would flagellate themselves publicly as an act of atonement. An annotated timeline guides the reader to the key events and dates of this recurring disaster. Nine illustrations show how artists represented the plague's impact on the self and society. Twelve primary documents, half of them never before translated into English, come from eyewitnesses ranging from Constantinople, Damascus, Prague, Italy, France, Germany, and England. A glossary is provided that enables readers to quickly look up unfamiliar medical and historical terms and concepts such as Bacillus, Verjuice, and Peasants' Revolt of 1381. An annotated bibliography follows, divided by topic. The work is fully indexed.
A Cruel Wind: Pandemic Flu in America 1918-1920
The flu pandemic that began in 1918 touched with illness virtually every family in America. It was a devastating time, far overshadowing the carnage of World War I as the pandemic killed more people in less time than any disease before or since. With 25% to 30% of the world's population having clinically apparent illnesses and a mortality rate of 2.5-5 %, it is believed that more than 675,000 Americans were among the 50-100 million that died worldwide.
Flu : the story of the great influenza pandemic of 1918 and the search for the virus that caused it
The fascinating, true story of the world's deadliest disease. In 1918, the Great Flu Epidemic felled the young and healthy virtually overnight. An estimated forty million people died as the epidemic raged. Children were left orphaned and families were devastated. As many American soldiers were killed by the 1918 flu as were killed in battle during World War I. And no area of the globe was safe. Eskimos living in remote outposts in the frozen tundra were sickened and killed by the flu in such numbers that entire villages were wiped out. Scientists have recently rediscovered shards of the flu virus frozen in Alaska and preserved in scraps of tissue in a government warehouse. Gina Kolata, an acclaimed reporter for The New York Times, unravels the mystery of this lethal virus with the high drama of a great adventure story. Delving into the history of the flu and previous epidemics, detailing the science and the latest understanding of this mortal disease, Kolata addresses the prospects for a great epidemic recurring, and, most important, what can be done to prevent it.
Global Flu and You : a history of influenza
Winter brings snow, ice, and freezing temperatures, but these climatic conditions are also the harbingers of another time of year: flu season. We all know the signs--chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, coughing--and hope that this common illness will make us sick for only a few days. But though the flu may seem harmless, influenza results in between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths every year and can spread virulently around the world. In pandemic years, the flu can kill millions. The recurrence of the Spanish Flu virus, the appearance and spread of Bird Flu, and the 2009 Swine Flu have heightened concerns about the dangers posed by flu pandemics. Drawing on his extensive research into influenza pandemics, George Dehner refutes the idea that these are a new phenomenon. In Global Flu and You, he traces the origins of the disease and outlines the societal and cultural changes that enabled the virus to become an epidemic threat. He reveals that while medical and scientific breakthroughs in studying and protecting against the virus have made rapid progress, demographic, economic, and technical changes have served to speed up and amplify the potential impacts of an influenza pandemic. Accessibly written for any reader, Global Flu and You exposes the facts and fictions of an illness we could all succumb to and is a must-read for anyone concerned with their own--and the world's--health.
The Great Influenza : the epic story of the deadliest plague in history
#1 New York Times bestseller "Monumental... an authoritative and disturbing morality tale."--Chicago Tribune The strongest weapon against pandemic is the truth. Read why in the definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic. Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon. As Barry concludes, "The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that...those in authority must retain the public's trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart." At the height of World War I, history's most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease.
How to Prevent the Next Pandemic
From the author of the #1 New York Times best seller How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The COVID-19 pandemic isn't over, but even as governments around the world strive to put it behind us, they're also starting to talk about what happens next. How can we prevent a new pandemic from killing millions of people and devastating the global economy? Can we even hope to accomplish this? Bill Gates believes the answer is yes, and in this book he lays out clearly and convincingly what the world should have learned from COVID-19 and what all of us can do to ward off another disaster like it. Relying on the shared knowledge of the world's foremost experts and on his own experience of combating fatal diseases through the Gates Foundation, he first helps us understand the science of infectious diseases. Then he shows us how the nations of the world, working in conjunction with one another and with the private sector, can not only ward off another COVID-like catastrophe but also eliminate all respiratory diseases, including the flu. Here is a clarion call--strong, comprehensive, and of the gravest importance--from one of our greatest and most effective thinkers and activists.
The Next Pandemic : On the Front Lines Against Humankind's Gravest Dangers
An inside account of the fight to contain the world's deadliest diseases--and the panic and corruption that make them worse Throughout history, humankind's biggest killers have been infectious diseases: the Black Death, the Spanish Flu, and AIDS alone account for over one hundred million deaths. We ignore this reality most of the time, but when a new threat--Ebola, SARS, Zika--seems imminent, we send our best and bravest doctors to contain it. People like Dr. Ali S. Khan. In his long career as a public health first responder--protected by a thin mask from infected patients, napping under nets to keep out scorpions, making life-and-death decisions on limited, suspect information--Khan has found that rogue microbes will always be a problem, but outbreaks are often caused by people. We make mistakes, politicize emergencies, and, too often, fail to imagine the consequences of our actions. The Next Pandemic is a firsthand account of disasters like anthrax, bird flu, and others--and how we could do more to prevent their return. It is both a gripping story of our brushes with fate and an urgent lesson on how we can keep ourselves safe from the inevitable next pandemic.
Opinions Throughout History: Diseases & Epidemics
Opinions Throughout History: Disease & Epidemics traces the history of some of the most impactful diseases in human history, such as smallpox, measles, the bubonic plague, and HIV, and looks at how these viruses and bacterial plagues affected American politics and culture. The book will also explore the rise and the spread of the anti-vaccination and science skepticism movements and their relationship to American and global public health. The history of American diseases and epidemics will be compared to the COVID-19 crisis, the deadliest pandemic in modern U.S. history, which has provided a clear example of how governments and the other organs of the state can help or hinder the international goal of stamping out disease.
Pandemic Influenza : Emergency Planning and Community Preparedness
The swine flu emergency needn't become a crisis. This critically acclaimed work provides public health officials, doctors, responders, and emergency planners with accurate current information that will help them understand the nature of an outbreak, assess risk, answer public concerns, and develop informed strategies. Devoid of sensationalism and agenda, this CRC Press resource provides all the information needed to understand pandemic influenzas including, avian, swine, and human variations and outlines the steps needed to develop and implement prevention, stabilization, and recovery efforts as needed at the local level. "... an amazing resource ... Dr. Ryan has assembled some of the best experts in the field to guide you in understanding the threat of pandemic influenza and how it can affect you and the people you are responsible for. ..." --From the foreword by Lynn A. Slepski, Captain, United States Public Health Service Make certain your response to Swine Flu is proactive and informed Edited by Jeffrey Ryan, Institute for Emergency Preparedness, this volume #65533; Arms planners and responders with guidance from 13 leading experts Takes lessons from past pandemics Covers biological and clinical aspects of influenza Discusses pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical measures Details response actions related to communication, travel, and quarantine While the swine flu outbreak has impacted Mexico; influenza has no respect for boundaries and is already being felt up north. Despite warnings from the World Health Organization, our preparedness continues to lag. Part of the problem is that the real action must occur at the local level. Triage, care, and containment, along with maintenance of infrastructure, are functions that must be carried out by local planners and responders. The first section reviews the history of pandemics. The middle chapters examine the biology of a virus and clinical aspects of influenza. The final chapters examine international and federal programs and discuss response at the local level, including service continuation planning and fatality management.
Pandemics: What Everyone Needs to Know
From HIV to H1N1, pandemics pose one of the greatest threats to global health in the twenty-first century. Defined as epidemics of infectious disease across large geographic areas, pandemics can disseminate globally with incredible speed as humans and goods move faster than ever before. While vaccines, drugs, quarantine, and education can reduce the severity of many outbreaks, factors such as global warming, population density, and antibiotic resistance have complicated our ability to fight disease. Respiratory infections like influenza and SARS spread quickly as a consequence of modern, mass air travel, while unsafe health practices promote the spread of viruses like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. In Pandemics: What Everyone Needs to Know, Nobel Prize-winning immunologist Peter C. Doherty addresses the history of pandemics and explores the ones that persist today. He considers what promotes global spread, the types of pathogens most present today and the level of threat they pose, and how to combat outbreaks and mitigate their effects.
The Plague Year: America in the time of Covid
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower: an unprecedented, momentous account of Covid-19--its origins, its wide-ranging repercussions, and the ongoing global fight to contain it From the fateful first moments of the outbreak in China to the storming of the U.S. Capitol to the extraordinary vaccine rollout, Lawrence Wright's The Plague Year tells the story of Covid-19 in authoritative, galvanizing detail and with the full drama of events on both a global and intimate scale, illuminating the medical, economic, political, and social ramifications of the pandemic. Wright takes us inside the CDC, where a first round of faulty test kits lost America precious time . . . inside the halls of the White House, where Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger's early alarm about the virus was met with confounding and drastically costly skepticism . . . into a Covid ward in a Charlottesville hospital, with an idealistic young woman doctor from the town of Little Africa, South Carolina . . . into the precincts of prediction specialists at Goldman Sachs . . . into Broadway's darkened theaters and Austin's struggling music venues . . . inside the human body, diving deep into the science of how the virus and vaccines function--with an eye-opening detour into the history of vaccination and of the modern anti-vaccination movement. And in this full accounting, Wright makes clear that the medical professionals around the country who've risked their lives to fight the virus reveal and embody an America in all its vulnerability, courage, and potential. In turns steely-eyed, sympathetic, infuriated, unexpectedly comical, and always precise, Lawrence Wright is a formidable guide, slicing through the dense fog of misinformation to give us a 360-degree portrait of the catastrophe we thought we knew as we lived through it.
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story
Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis's taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.The characters you will meet in these pages are as fascinating as they are unexpected. A thirteen-year-old girl's science project on transmission of an airborne pathogen develops into a very grown-up model of disease control. A local public-health officer uses her worm's-eye view to see what the CDC misses, and reveals great truths about American society. A secret team of dissenting doctors, nicknamed the Wolverines, has everything necessary to fight the pandemic: brilliant backgrounds, world-class labs, prior experience with the pandemic scares of bird flu and swine flu...everything, that is, except official permission to implement their work.Michael Lewis is not shy about calling these people heroes for their refusal to follow directives that they know to be based on misinformation and bad science. Even the internet, as crucial as it is to their exchange of ideas, poses a risk to them. They never know for sure who else might be listening in.
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