Great American Diseases: Their Effects on the Course of North American History presents medical history as it pertains to the major infectious diseases of North America. The book is designed to provide an interesting and engaging introduction to microbiology, immunology and epidemiology. With the advent of COVID-19, this book will serve as a reference on the history of previous epidemics. The book presents pandemics in an easy-to-read volume and provides concise chapters on the history of a disease, progression of understanding on the pathogen (agent of the disease), and their social ramifications through the history of North America.
Author(s): Ian Tizard, Jeffrey M. B. Musser
Publisher: Academic Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 399
City: London
Front Cover
Great American Diseases: Their Effects on the course of North American History
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: How infectious diseases have shaped American History
Chapter One: Infectious diseases and their causes
A world of microbes
Bacteria
Properties and classification
The normal microbiota
How bacteria cause disease
Antibiotics
Viruses
Properties and classification
How viruses cause disease
Protozoan parasites
Other parasites
Zoonoses
Secondary and opportunistic infections
Pandemics and epidemics
References
Chapter Two: Immunity and recovery from infectious diseases
Immune defenses
Physical barriers
Innate immunity
Adaptive immunity
Immunity to bacteria and viruses
Population immunity
Vaccination
Herd immunity
Immunization
Active immunization
Passive immunization
The serum runs to Nome
References
Chapter Three: Diseases among the first inhabitants
Native American diseases
Tuberculosis
Viral hemorrhagic fevers
Cocoliztli
Hantaviruses
The Maya collapse
References
Chapter Four: Tuberculosis-Another ancient disease
The organism
The disease
History
Pre-Columbian America
The ancient world
The tuberculosis epidemic
Tuberculosis treatments
BCG vaccine
The sanitorium movement
The move to the west
Surgical treatments
Antitubercular drugs
References
Chapter Five: Syphilis and the Columbian exchange
The organism
The diseases
Yaws
Pinta
Syphilis
History
Syphilis and the Columbian exchange
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
The Guatemala story
The present status of syphilis
References
Chapter Six: Malaria and the ague-1492
Malarial parasites
The disease
History
The English
The slave trade
American Independence
The Seminole wars
Malaria in the west
New discoveries
Treatment
Eradication
References
Chapter Seven: Smallpox-1519: The first vaccines
Smallpox: The disease
History
The invasion of Mexico
The Inka in Peru
Virginia colony
The Pilgrims in New England
The French in Canada
Variolation
The revolutionary war
Native Americans
Vaccination
The royal philanthropic expedition
The Russians
The high plains epidemic
The last century of smallpox
Eradication!
References
Chapter Eight: Measles-1531: Almost gone!
The virus
The disease
History
Measles in North America
Native Americans
Hawaii
West Coast
US army
Current status
Vaccination, herd immunity, and vaccination hesitancy
References
Chapter Nine: Typhoid and typhus-1607: Smelly differences
Typhoid fever
The bacterium
The disease
History
Grosse Île
Water quality
Typhoid Mary
Current status
Epidemic typhus
The bacterium
The disease
History
Current status
Endemic typhus
References
Chapter Ten: Yellow fever-1647: Mosquito-borne invader
Yellow fever
History
Saint-Domingue
The United States
Philadelphia
Contagion?
The myth of black resistance
Memphis
Texas
The Spanish-American war
Nurse Clara Maass
The last US epidemic
The Panama Canal
Yellow fever vaccine
References
Chapter Eleven: Cholera-1832: A worldwide pandemic
The bacterium
The disease
History
The second pandemic
The third pandemic
Cholera and Polk
Cholera and immigration
Cholera in the environment
Treatments
References
Chapter Twelve: Poliomyelitis-1841: The triumph of vaccination
The disease
History
The United States
Iron lungs
Franklin Roosevelt
The March of Dimes
Research progress
Jonas Salk
Albert Sabin
The Cutter incident
Postpolio syndrome
Global eradication
References
Chapter Thirteen: Infectious diseases and the Civil War
Enteric diseases
Prisoners of war
Measles
Fevers
Malaria
Typhoid and typho-malaria
Epidemic typhus
Yellow fever
Parasites
Military hospitals
Surgical fevers
Lessons learned
References
Chapter Fourteen: Plague and San Francisco-1900
The plague bacillus
The plague
History
The first pandemic
The second pandemic
The third pandemic
San Francisco
The spread through California
New Orleans
Galveston
Los Angeles
Across the west
References
Chapter Fifteen: Influenza-1918: A wartime pandemic
Influenza viruses
The disease
History
Influenza 1918
Origins
The beginning
The spread eastward
The spread westward
Native peoples
The death toll
Armed forces
The civilians
The global death toll
The end of the pandemic
Consequences
Molecular archeology
Present status
References
Chapter Sixteen: A completely new disease: AIDS-1981
The virus
Retroviruses
The syndrome
Opportunistic infections
History
California
The search for the cause
The origins of the virus
Societal changes
The United States
Global spread
Treatment
Susceptible populations
The situation in Africa
Eradication?
References
Chapter Seventeen: Panic and neglect-2000-2018
Home-grown threats
Lyme Disease
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Legionnaires disease
Norwalk virus
Across the southern border
Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever
Vectors
History
Flying in
West Nile Fever
The disease
History
Chikungunya and Zika fevers
Ebola
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
References
Chapter Eighteen: COVID-19: Not just another respiratory virus-2020
Origins
Coronaviruses
Clinical disease
Prevention and control
Time course
Global significance
The victims
The vaccines
New viral variants
The problems
Predicted outcomes
References
Glossary
Further reading
Index
Back Cover
