[.ca] A Field Guide to Germs (ISBN 140003051X)

From Amazon.com:
From the title alone, you know it's going to be good. Biddle delves into anthrax and arboviruses, cholera and chlamydia, diphtheria, dengue, and dysentery, and on through the disease-ridden alphabet to Zika fever. Biddle explains in graphic detail the causes, symptoms and treatments for these germs, and it's all jolly good middle-of-the-night reading. You might become somewhat phobic if you read it from cover to cover, but no one will be more scintillating at parties.

Informative and entertaining:
For witty and informative science writing on a scary topic, you can't beat this little book. This entertaining as well as very informative little guide is about all the nasty little bugs that feed on us humans, written in a darkly humorous and even satirical style. You wouldn't think that a writer could make so many nasty diseases entertaining and even fun to read about, but Biddle has managed it in this great little book. Besides the usual tropical diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness, there are essays on things you've never heard of, and after reading about them, probably won't want to hear about ever again, such as Kala Azar, o-nyong-nyong, shigella (also known as dysentery), schistosomiasis, and many others. Biddle also is adept at turning a phrase. For example, here is how he describes malaria: "The life cycle of the malaria trypanosome is one of nature's darksome wonders." A reviewer here mentioned another good one. Writing about the microbial fungus, candida albicans, he says "Even the most squeeky clean athlete has a lot in common with a rotten tree trunk." The book consists of short essays, usually a page or two in length, on the natural history and pathology of bacteria, viruses and microbial disease-causing and other parasitic organisms. Although I was a biology major in college and took courses in microbiology and even virology, I still found this to be an interesting and informative book despite it's being aimed at the general reader. In fact, this is one of the most enjoyable pieces of science writing I've ever come across by chance. This book is well worth your time and money, although it's certain to turn you into a hypochondriac. At the very least, you'll never want to set foot in the tropics or outside the borders of the U.S., with its 5-star sewage and plumbing, ever again.

Highly Accurate and Readable Guide:
I'm a professional microbiologist (and plague expert) and find this book to be succinct, accurate, and a pleasure to read. Sounds to me like the reviewer from Brooklyn might have a competing volume to sell. I've recommended this work and its previous edition for years to my students and colleagues. It's a rare example of science writing that is both informative and fun.

Good for those in the field, and for the curious:
Usually, I approach texts such as this with some trepidation, because they have a tendancy of being the author's perception as well as some half-baked theory of a conspiracy. This book is objective, clear-cut, and explains in simple terminology, the story behind our most common "bugs" and the diseases they cause. If you are intrigued by the field of diseases, I suggest you check this one out. Also check out "Killer Germs" (Barry & David Zimmerman) for something more in depth and historical.

Germs by Biddle:
This is an excellent work which diarizes practically every major germ imaginable. The author depicts how physicians dressed in special garb to guard against the bubonic plague throughout the centuries following the 1300s. The work describes various acute respiratory diseases impacting the tonsils and adenoids. Today, there is a lowered risk of Anthrax infestation due to considerable advances in the medicinal arts. Lyme disease is still a concern in the Northeastern, USA. Approximately 15-30% of ticks are infected and 1-3% of people bitten by ticks become infected with Lyme disease. Cholera is a disease which manifests itself in a dirty environment of water or food contamination. The hantavirus is carried by mice and rats which contaminate the air by breathing common air and spreading disease through droppings, urine and saliva. This book could be very helpful in identifying a complicated disease process early enough so that effective strategies could be formulated and implemented. This work would be beneficial to a wide constituency of readers including medical personnel, parents, teachers, public administrators, rangers and any public service employee.

A few errors:
I'm not a scientist, so I trusted all the facts in this book. However, a biologist friend of mine (a specialist in plagues, no less) took a look and she pointed out five or six big time scientific errors. To be fair, she said they were the kind of errors that most everyone but a highly trained person would miss. I don't know if these have been corrected in later editions, but I thought I'd send out a warning.