[.ca] Bugs in Armor: A Tale of Malaria and Soldiering (ISBN 1583487549)

Malaria: facts from the myths:
This book gives a comprehensive insight into how malaria has shaped our history - especially through effects on expeditions to malaria zones. It surely emerges from some serious investigative medical journalism that differentiates between the myths from reality about malaria. The book presents the medical, epidemiological and technical insights on the various historical accounts as if in an encyclopaedia and yet it still reads so easy as a novel. It would be an excellent surprise present for a veteran of one of the wars or someone travelling to any of the malaria zones, soldiers (particularly commanders and trainers), medics and paramedics, development workers, medical historians and epidemiologists. It is amazing to see how and why the military in some developed countries have lead medical advances! The book is all you will need to differentiate the myths from facts about malaria!

Incredible perception:
An incredible perception into a disease that threatens half the world's population. Although its major thrust is on highlighting the impact of malaria on military campaigns and vice versa, the seriousness of the disease in malaria endemic regions is not lost to the reader. Outside the depressing statistics, the book is written in a witty style that guarantees the reader remains generously entertained. And there is a wealth of historical anecdotes, for example: "If you mentioned the name Ferdinand de Lesseps in the latter part of the nineteenth century among those who understood what global economy was all about, you were bound to have heads turning. First to tell you that this was a brilliant man who had excavated the Suez Canal, and then to go on in subdued voices that he was probably the richest entrepreneur of the age - a nineteenth century Bill Gates." And the book also succeeds in highlighting why the rich west (not famous for its malaria!)should not drag its feet in the search for the ultimate cure since "dyanism of movement globalizes malaria". An informative and well-written book that will keep the reader entertained.

Fascinating read:
Fascinating and thoroughly researched book that explains a complex medical subject in words that are familiar to ordinary folk. The book is divided into two sections. The first part examines the impact of malaria on immune-naive people (soldiers in this book, but could as well be anybody in a malaria-free country, and the second part concentrates on how the military establishment has focused resources into understanding and controlling this global menance.