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Deadly Invaders: Tracking Today's Global Viruses, from Marburg to the Avian Flu (New York Times)

Deadly Invaders: Tracking Today's Global Viruses, from Marburg to the Avian Flu (New York Times)

by Denise Grady (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2006

    $62.54
Synopsis

Through a special collaboration with The New York Times , Kingfisher Publications is pleased to present a new way to learn about the events and concepts that define our world. Gripping first-person narratives, written by veteran New York Times journalists, bring history and current events to life for young readers. Full-colour illustrations, photographs and sidebars explain key concepts, and historical articles from the archives of The New York Times place events in the global context. This work is set in Angola, 2005. Science reporter, Denise Grady, is trying on a bio-hazard suit for the first time. She is about to head to a virus hot zone to cover the story of a dangerous new disease caused by the Marburg virus. The virus, closely related to Ebola, is spreading in the African nation - most of its victims die within a week. From this terrifying beginning, Denise explores the realities of emerging viruses - diseases that have gone global in the last 20 years, or that are expected to be a world threat in the years to come. From HIV to Avian Flu, this is a harrowing look at the dangers we face in a global society, and the ways that we can protect ourselves in the future.

$62.54

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 128
 Publisher: Kingfisher Books Ltd
Published: 18 Sep 2006
ISBN 10: 0753413310
ISBN 13: 9780753413319
Children’s book age: 9-11 Years

Media Reviews
Enhanced by news photos, side notes and a
large list of citations to relevant Times articles, her accounts will be useful for assignments. They will
also leave readers profoundly affected by not only the dangers of these often-unpredictable potential
pandemics, but by the complex challenges facing medical professionals who fight to understand and
contain them.
Children's Literature
Prepare to be both repelled and fascinated by this nonfiction book on some of the world's most deadly diseases. Viruses like Marburg, West Nile, SARS, and HIV/AIDS are covered in an engaging and informative manner. In the first and largest portion of the book, the author, a New York Times science reporter, details the Marburg virus after traveling to Angola during an outbreak in 2005. Because the author was actually there and experienced the devastation of the virus on the people of Uige, the text sounds authentic rather than secondhand research. Known as the hot zone, hundreds of people died in Africa after suffering horrific symptoms. The extreme poverty, the afflicted residents, and the less-than-sanitary hospital conditions are all described in detail. The locals, being very superstitious, were afraid of the health workers dressed in their white protective gear, because the color white is associated with witches. Each section has glossy color photographs and accompanying sidebars. Readers will learn that all of these viruses originated and/or are spread through animals (monkeys, mosquitoes, and prairie dogs to name a few.) Overall, the subject is presented in a style that is both fascinating and easy to understand.
VOYA
In 2005, New York Times reporter Grady visited Uige, Angola, the site of a deadly outbreak of Marburg Fever, a highly contagious virus first discovered in 1967. Her account of the conditions in the hospital and country, the cautionary preparations necessary before even going near an infected person, the removal of contaminated clothing and equipment, and the Angolan customs that interfere with the isolation and anti-contaminationprocedures can be shocking. Considering that the Marburg death rate in Angola in 2005 was about 88 percent and that more and more deadly viruses are coming to light, this information should be a wake-up call to the world that viral epidemics can occur anywhere. Modern travel, lack of adequate health care and vaccines, tropical forest incursions, and new markets for exotic and imported foods and animals contribute to possible epidemics and pandemics. After a general discussion of emerging infectious threats, six other viruses besides Marburg are featured: Avian Flu, HIV and AIDS, Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, West Nile, SARS, and Monkeypox. There are no footnotes, but a list of Internet resources to valid sites includes the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. Grady's further reading consists of two book titles and slightly more than one hundred articles from the New York Times. More documentation and other sources would have benefited any student using this work as a first step for papers. Although the New York Times is a reliable newspaper, additional sources would have provided more encompassing and comprehensive research for students.
School Library Journal
Gr 7 Up-This readable and riveting text introduces students to the new age of viral epidemics. Grady begins with an account of her trip to Angola in 2005 to cover an outbreak of Marburg fever as a reporter for the New York Times. Her writing is informative and compelling. She persuasively relays the challenges of fighting a viral epidemic in a city that lacks such basic services as running water. The medical professionals also had to cope with language barriers and cultural differences. Gradyclearly conveys the difficulties of confining and halting the spread of diseases in an age in which air travel makes it possible for an infected individual to spread a disease worldwide in a matter of hours. A map shows how one person infected with the SARS virus infected 400 individuals from around the globe while staying at a hotel in China. Boxed areas highlight information and individuals. For instance, one profiles Maria Bonino, an Italian pediatrician who died of Marburg during the outbreak. The layout is appealing and includes good-quality, full-color, relevant photographs on almost every spread. After relaying her experiences reporting on the Marburg outbreak, Grady profiles other deadly diseases, including Avian Flu, HIV and AIDS, SARS, and West Nile. A fast-paced, timely, and important book.-Maren Ostergard, King County Library System, Issaquah, WA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Grady, author of a number of New York Times articles on the topic, describes in personal, sometimes-heartrending detail her 2005 visit to Angola to cover the outbreak of Marburg fever there. Then she goes on to profile six more viral diseases that have jumped from animal to human victims: HIV and SARS, Avian Flu, Hantavirus, West Nile and Monkeypox. Rather than getting involved in technicalities, she goes for the human angle, recalling her own anxieties over visiting a country with 10 million land mines and cockroaches the size of hockey pucks. Moreover, she describes the makeshift conditions in a hospital isolation ward with one dying occupant, and admits her mixed feelings about attending a family's funeral for a possibly infected child. Enhanced by news photos, sidenotes and a large list of citations to relevant Times articles, her accounts will be useful for assignments. They will also leave readers profoundly affected by not only the dangers of these often-unpredictable potential pandemics, but by the complex challenges facing medical professionals who fight to understand and contain them. (source notes, Internet resources, further reading) (Nonfiction. 11-13)



Children's Literature
Overall, the subject is presented in a style that is both fascinating and easy to understand. School Library Journal
A fast-paced, timely, and important book Kirkus Reviews
Enhanced by news photos, side notes and a large list of citations to relevant Times articles, her accounts will be useful for assignments.

Children's Literature
Overall, the subject is presented in a style that is both fascinating and easy to understand. School Library Journal
A fast-paced, timely, and important book Kirkus Reviews
Enhanced by news photos, side notes and a large list of citations to relevant Times articles, her accounts will be useful for assignments.

Author Bio
Denise Grady has been a science reporter for The New York Times since 1998. In that time she has written more than 500 articles about medicine and biology. In 1998, she covered the Hantavirus outbreak in New Mexico, and she recently travelled to Angola to report on an outbreak of Marburg virus there. She lives in Westchester, New York, USA.