Deadly Outbreaks

Take a visit to the frontline as scientists fight to solve medical mysteries.
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.
Author Dr. Alexandra Levitt is an expert on emerging diseases and other public health threats. Here she shares insider accounts she's collected that go behind the alarming headlines we've seen in the media: mysterious food poisonings, unexplained deaths at a children's hospital, a strange neurologic disease afflicting slaughterhouse workers, flocks of birds dropping dead out of the sky, and drug-resistant malaria running rampant in a refugee camp. Meet the resourceful investigators - doctors, veterinarians, and research scientists - and discover the truth behind these cases and more.

Alexandra Levitt is an expert in emergent diseases and public health issues. In this audiobook, she relays information and stories on the complex and fascinating subject of infectious microbes. Julie McKay narrates with a deliberate, clear voice, which will help listeners grasp the intricacies of the subject. The chapters are organized by microbial strains, and each chapter gives background on the known facts of the particular microbe, as well public policy and history related to it. While the subject of the audio is scientific, Levitt pries into all related areas: homicide, deadly outbreaks, and the successes and failures of those people working to stop these invisible, deadly killers. Listeners will be shocked and terrified by what they will learn - but ultimately grateful to be more informed.