Worse yet this ancient disease is undergoing a metamorphosis, adapting to our misused medications, growing stronger, becoming unbeatable - becoming multi-drug-resistant."--BOOK JACKET.

"This is an excellent book. It should be read by all who are interested in any aspect of Tuberculosis, including the growing problem of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis." Journal of American Medical Association "The book serves an important function, relaying statistics and TB hot spots, proposing funding and international standardized treatments. Government officials, researchers and nonprofit health organizations will likely cast this as the authoritative book on the subject." Publishers Weekly "Like other recent works on the threat of infectious diseases such as Laurie Garrett's The Coming Plague, Timebomb has the power of fiction and it is sometimes easy to forget that it is not. Unlike the Garrett book, which is more a collection of short dramatic stories collectively telling a big picture about our coexistence and evolution with microbes, Reichman selects one story and presents it in novel form with better material that most science fiction. The book is organized in a clear and riveting manner. Within the narrative style, the book is rich with up-to-the-minute details and references that add to its depth. An incredible account of politics and disease dynamics occurring at all levels, Timebomb helps us realize that controlling or eradicating TB is not just about science and facts; likely if it were, TB would have long been relegated to the history books." Nature Medicine Magazine Tuberculosis, supposedly defeated by antibiotics half a century ago, has returned in a highly contagious and fatal new form that cannot be treated with conventional drugs. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), could cause some 10 million deaths over the next decade and is thriving in the overcrowded prisons of the former Soviet Union. As Timebomb explains in unnerving detail, the virtual collapse of the world's borders means that refugees, tourists, immigrants, business travelers, and others can spread the TB bacillus very efficiently. London, for example, has experienced a 100% increase in reported cases in the past 10 years. Written by the world's preeminent TB expert and an award-winning medical and health writer, Timebomb details the evolution and the current state of the MDR-TB epidemic, interweaving the science of MDR-TB with personal stories of people whose lives have been threatened by the deadly bacteria.

This is the story of a killer that has been striking people down for thousands of years: tuberculosis. After centuries of ineffective treatments, the microorganism that causes TB was identified, and the cure was thought to be within reach--but drug-resistant varieties continue to plague and panic the human race. The "biography" of this deadly germ, an account of the diagnosis, treatment, and "cure" of the disease over time, and the social history of an illness that could strike anywhere but was most prevalent among the poor are woven together in an engrossing, carefully researched narrative. Bibliography, source notes, index.

This is a study of changing attitudes—of patients, the medical community, and society in general—towards tuberculosis, over the course of a century and a half. As TB became better understood scientifically, treatment of the disease changed for the better, and the attitudes became more hopeful. This book illustrates these changing attitudes with the life stories and sample works of well-known writers—novelists, essayists, and poets. Not all of these writers had TB themselves, but they all were well enough acquainted with the disease to write about it eloquently. This added dimension gives the book another identity: in addition to medical and social history, Times and Tides of Tuberculosis offers literary history and criticism

Effective antibiotics are available to treat tuberculosis, yet 2 billion people worldwide are infected and statistics indicate that 8 million more will become infected in the next 12 months. In fact, 2 or 3 million people will likely die from the disease

This book focuses on the era during which the cause of tuberculosis had been identified, and public health officials were seeking to prevent it, but scientists had not yet found a cure. By examining tuberculosis comparatively in two Atlantic port cities, Buenos Aires and Philadelphia, it explores the medical, political and economic settings in which patients, physicians and urban officials lived and worked. Reber discusses the causes of tuberculosis, treatments and public health efforts to stop contagion, and how factors such as gender, age, class, nationality, beliefs and previous experiences shaped patient responses, and often defined the type of treatment.

Economists and political scientists wrestle with the challenges faced by Russian officials and public alike in adapting to a market economy and democracy, including the fragility of property rights and elections still rooted in old institutional structures. This book examines the reforms of health and welfare, and the hierarchy of privilege and access, and consider how Putin's statist approach to mythmaking compares to that of previous Soviet and post-Soviet regimes. Historians and anthropologists explore the issue of nostalgia, gender, punishment, belief, and how history itself is being created and perceived today. The book concludes with a journey through the ruined landscape of real socialism.

In 1917, as the United States prepared for war in Europe, Army Surgeon General William C. Gorgas recognized the threat of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to American troops. What the Army needed was some "good tuberculosis men." Despite the efforts of the nations best "tuberculosis men," the disease would become a leading cause of World War I disability discharges and veterans benefits. The fact that tuberculosis patients often experienced cycles in which they recovered their health and then fell ill again challenged government officials to judge the degree to which a person was disabled and required government care and support. This book tracks the impact of tuberculosis on the US Army from the late 1890s, when it was a ubiquitous presence in society, to the 1960s when it became a curable and controllable disease.

A self-contained and comprehensive guide to the mathematical modeling of disease transmission, appropriate for graduate students.

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there was a tubercular 'moment' in which perceptions of the consumptive disease became inextricably tied to contemporary concepts of beauty, playing out in the clothing fashions of the day. With the ravages of the illness widely regarded as conferring beauty on the sufferer, it became commonplace to regard tuberculosis as a positive affliction, one to be emulated in both beauty practices and dress. While medical writers of the time believed that the fashionable way of life of many women actually rendered them susceptible to the disease, Carolyn A. Day investigates the deliberate and widespread flouting of admonitions against these fashion practices in the pursuit of beauty. Through an exploration of contemporary social trends and medical advice revealed in medical writing, literature and personal papers, Consumptive Chic uncovers the intimate relationship between fashionable women's clothing, and medical understandings of the illness. Illustrated with over 40 full color fashion plates, caricatures, medical images, and photographs of original garments, this is a compelling story of the intimate relationship between the body, beauty, and disease - and the rise of 'tubercular chic'.