Pandemic

Home > Other > Pandemic > Page 32
Pandemic Page 32

by Sonia Shah


  40. Alex Whiting, “New Pandemic Insurance to Prevent Crises Through Early Payouts,” Reuters, March 26, 2015.

  41. Interview with James Wilson.

  42. Christopher Joyce, “Cellphones Could Help Doctors Stay Ahead of an Epidemic,” Shots, NPR’s Health Blog, Aug. 31, 2011.

  43. Pan American Health Organization, “Epidemiological Update: Cholera,” March 20, 2014.

  44. Belle-Anse is not unique in suffering the effects of poorly maintained aid projects. The entire country is littered with them. According to a 2012 survey, more than a third of the wells in Haiti constructed by aid groups—most of which are left unmanaged—are contaminated with fecal bacteria. After returning to Port-au-Prince, I met a young British man who told me with pride that he was using his trust fund money to install toilets at a local school. But despite the fact of the ongoing cholera epidemic and the manifest reality that Haitians were regularly exposed to fecal contamination in the environment, he hadn’t considered the issue of where the toilets would deposit their contents. When I asked him, he paused. “In the river, I guess,” he finally said. “Like everyone else!” See Jocelyn M. Widmer et al., “Water-Related Infrastructure in a Region of Post-Earthquake Haiti: High Levels of Fecal Contamination and Need for Ongoing Monitoring,” The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 91, no. 4 (Oct. 2014): 790–97.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  My sources for Pandemic varied widely, from sanitation engineers and archaeologists to geneticists and epidemiologists, but they all had one thing in common, which is a willingness to talk to a science journalist who called up out of the blue. While I have cited only the handful of sources whose words I quote directly, they were all instrumental in the making of this book. Without their generosity, it could never have been written.

  The research and reporting I conducted over the past six years would have been impossible, too, without the support of a number of individuals and organizations. The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, besides supporting my reporting trips, helped turn my narratives of the cholera epidemics in 1832 New York City and 2010 Port-au-Prince into a dazzling interactive visualization (“Mapping Cholera,” at choleramap.pulitzercenter.org). This parallel project on the two epidemics punctuating cholera’s pandemic sweep crystallized my understanding of the social and political roots of pandemics. Peter Sawyer, Dan McCarey, Nathalie Applewhite, Zach Child, Jon Sawyer, and the rest of the team at the center made it possible. Oliver Schulz and Ivan Gayton at Médecins Sans Frontières, in addition to being heroes on the front lines fighting epidemics, tackled technical and bureaucratic hurdles on multiple continents to allow me to use the remarkable data they collected on cholera in Haiti. Randi Hutter Epstein, Matthew Knutzen, Steven Romalewski, Don Boyes, and others provided critical early help as well, and the New York Academy of Medicine hosted a public event in connection with the project and this book.

  Jim and Mary Ottaway and Lisa Phillips at SUNY–New Paltz offered me an honorary journalism professorship, which allowed me to teach a class on investigating epidemics. The semester-long collaborative investigative project on Lyme disease that resulted was instrumental in my understanding of that cryptic spillover disease. I thank them, and all my students, whose hard work made it possible. Nassim Assefi and her colleagues at TEDMED offered me their well-lit stage to showcase my ideas about pandemics and how we understand them. Jodi Solomon and her staff provided me with the opportunity to present the material in this book to thoughtful audiences across the country.

  I owe a huge debt to the journalist Philippe Rivière, formerly of Le Monde Diplomatique, who not only designed the lovely maps featured here but also provided critical feedback. Thoughtful comments from my dear friend Michelle Markley and my parents, Dr. Hasmukh Shah and Dr. Hansa Shah, also immensely improved this book. Thanks, too, to David Fisman, who generously made time to review an early draft, and to Michael Olesen, Dao Tran, and Trent Duffy, who offered helpful comments. Frances Botkin, who accompanied me to Haiti, made a difficult trip much less so; Jennifer Ballengee listened attentively to my long harangues as I wrote draft after draft. Scientific American magazine, Yale Environment 360, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, and Le Monde Diplomatique were among the outlets that published articles that supported the reporting on which this book is based. David Fisman and Ashleigh Tuite put together the story of cholera’s spread along the Erie Canal and shared their data with me. Su Dongxia provided cheerful logistical support in Guangzhou, as did Rita Choksi in New Delhi and Sean Roubens Jean Sacra in Port-au-Prince. Catherine Guenther provided research assistance.

  I thank my lovely agent, Charlotte Sheedy, who gifted me with her unwavering support, and my editor, Sarah Crichton, and the rest of the team at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, who brought this book into the world. Finally, for sustaining me through the years of reporting and writing, I thank Mark Bulmer and our sons, Z and K.

  INDEX

  The index that appears in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  adaptive theory of aging

  Africa; burial rituals; cholera; Ebola; HIV/AIDS; monkeypox; polio. See also specific countries

  African Americans

  African Union

  aging; adaptive theory of

  agriculture; antibiotic use in livestock; dawn of; Irish potato famine; livestock excreta; “sewage farming”

  Agulhas Current

  AIDS. See HIV/AIDS

  air travel; disease and

  Alaska

  alcohol

  Al Qaeda

  Amazon

  American Academy of Pediatrics

  American Medical Association

  amphibians; chytrid fungus

  anesthesia

  animals; animal microbes turn into human pathogens; antibiotic use in; cholera in; domestication of; extinction; fecal pollution; pathogens; scapegoating; sick; wet markets. See also specific animals

  anomalies

  anthrax

  antibiotics; disease resistance to; overuse of; private interests and

  antibodies

  Arab Spring

  Argentina

  Aristide, Jean-Bertrand

  Arizona

  artemisinin

  Ascel Bio

  Ashenburg, Katherine

  Asia; avian influenza; cholera. See also specific countries

  Asian tiger mosquito

  Associated Press

  Astor, John Jacob

  Atlantic Ocean; triangle trade

  attractiveness

  Aum Shinrikyo

  Australia

  Australopithecus

  autism, and vaccines

  autoimmune diseases

  avian influenzas

  Aylward, Bruce

  Aztecs

  Bacillus anthracis

  bacteria; cholera; discovery of; fecal pollution; gut; logic of pandemics; Lyme disease; MRSA; NDM-1; resistance to antibiotics; sea and. See also specific bacteria

  bacteriophage

  Bactrim

  ballast water

  Baltic Sea

  Baltimore

  Bangladesh

  Bank of New York

  bark beetles

  Bas-Congo virus

  basic reproductive number

  bathhouses

  Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis

  bats; Ebola and

  Bay of Bengal

  Bazalgette, Joseph

  beauty

  Beck, Lewis

  behavioral adaptation

  Belize

  Belle-Anse, Haiti

  Bering Strait

  beta-lactam antibiotics

  Bible

  Big Pharma

  bin Laden, Osama

  biomedicine, modern

  bioterrorism

  birds; avian flu; biodiversity; immune behavi
or; viruses. See also specific birds

  Blake, Nelson Manfred

  blame. See scapegoating

  bleach treatment

  bloodletting

  Borrelia burgdorferi

  Boston

  Bouillaud, Jean-Baptiste

  Brazil

  breakbone fever

  Brilliant, Larry

  British Medical Journal

  Brockmann, Dirk

  Bronx River

  Browne, Joseph

  bubonic plague. See plague

  Buddhists

  Bulgaria

  Burnet, Sir Macfarlane

  Burr, Aaron

  Burton, Neel

  Caenorhabditis elegans

  Cairo

  California

  Callahan, William J.

  calomel

  Cambodia

  Canada; SARS

  canals

  cancer

  C&O Canal

  carbon

  Caribbean

  Carlton, J. T.

  Carroll, Lewis, Through the Looking Glass

  Carson, Rachel

  Casadevall, Arturo

  cats

  celiac disease

  Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

  Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

  cesspools

  Chad

  Chadwick, Edwin

  Chambers, J. S.

  Chan, Margaret

  change blindness

  Charles X, King

  Charleston

  Chaunu, Pierre

  Chesapeake Bay

  Chicago

  chicken pox

  chickens

  chikungunya

  children; cholera; diaper wipes; fecal pollution; Lyme disease; mortality; vaccines

  Chile

  chimpanzees

  China; avian influenza; cholera; crowds; economy; pigs; SARS; yewei cuisine

  chipmunks

  chitin

  chlorine disinfection

  cholera; in animals; balls; climate change and; containment strategies; cover-ups; cures for; death; debut of; decline of; El Tor vibrio; fecal pollution and; germ theory; Haiti; Hippocratic medicine and; history of; London; medicine and; miasmatism and; New York City; pandemics; quarantines; resurgence of; riots; scapegoating; sea and; secret epidemic in Italy; on ships; South America; transportation of; treatments; vaccines

  cholesterol

  Christians, hygienic rituals and

  Christian Science Monitor, The

  chytrid fungus

  Cité Soleil, Haiti

  civet cats

  clams

  climate; change; El Niño; sea

  clindamycin

  Clinton, DeWitt

  cloning

  coal

  Coccidioides immitis

  Cohn, Samuel

  colds

  colistin

  Colombia

  colonialism

  Colorado

  Colwell, Rita

  confirmation bias

  Congo

  Connecticut

  contagion, nineteenth-century ideas on

  containment strategies; cholera; cooperation; early detection; future of surveillance system; New York City; nineteenth-century; political corruption and; public alerts; quarantines; shipping and; twentieth-century

  Continuous Plankton Recorder

  cooperation

  copepods

  cordons sanitaire

  coronaviruses

  corruption; containment strategies and; disease cover-ups; New York City; private water companies; rising power of private interests

  Costa Rica

  cover-ups, disease

  cows

  C. posadasii

  Crohn’s disease

  Croton River

  crowds; China; Ebola and; India; influenza and; New York City; urbanization and; virulence and

  crows

  Cuba; cholera

  Cunnion, Stephen

  cures; bloodletting; for cholera; germ theory; Hippocratic medicine and; modern biomedicine and; saltwater

  cytokine interleukin-6

  Czech Republic

  Danticat, Edwidge

  Danzig, Richard

  Darwin, Charles

  Daszak, Peter

  Davis, Mike

  death; burial practices; cholera; Ebola; evolution of; genes; mistaken; pathogens and; rates; SARS; signs of

  deer

  deforestation

  dehydration

  Delpech, Jacques Mathieu

  dengue fever

  Denmark

  depression

  Detroit

  diabetes

  diaper wipes

  diarrhea

  Dickens, Charles

  Dicrocoelium dendriticum

  digestive system

  DNA

  Doctors Without Borders

  dogs; excreta

  Dominican Republic

  doxycycline

  Drake, Daniel

  drought

  drugs; antibiotic overuse; development of; disease resistance to; generic; industry. See also specific drugs

  “dry” hygiene

  ducks

  Duffy, John

  dysentery

  East India Company

  East River

  Ebola; crowds and; death; fear of; quarantines; scapegoating

  Ebolanoia

  Echinococcus multilocularis

  EcoHealth Alliance

  E. coli

  Economist, The

  economy; Chinese; crowds and urbanization; global; housing boom; Indian; industrial; quarantines and

  Ecuador

  Egypt; influenza; zabaleen

  Elbe River

  elements, four

  Elizabeth I, Queen of England

  El Niño

  El Tor vibrio

  endemic diseases

  Enlightenment

  ENSO

  epidemiological transitions

  Erie Canal

  ethnocentrism

  Europe; cholera; colonialism; history of waste removal; medieval hygiene; O104:H4 outbreak; plague; urban growth; vaccines. See also specific countries

  Evans, Richard

  evolution; of death; immune behavior and; pathogens and; selfish gene theory; of sex

  excreta; animal; cholera and; history of removal systems; New York City; “night soil”; in rivers; water pollution; Western attitudes toward

  extinction

  fasciitis, necrotizing

  fear of pandemics

  feces. See excreta

  Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

  Federalists

  fenugreek

  ferrets

  fertilizer

  Fincher, Corey L.

  Finland

  fire

  fish

  Five Points slum

  Fleming, Alexander

  flies

  flophouses

  Florida

  flush toilets

  food; contamination; feces as

  Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

  forests; bark beetles; destruction

  fossil fuels

  France; cholera; measles; urban growth

  fungi chytrid; climate change and; pathogens. See also specific fungi

  future of pandemics

  Gabon

  Galen

  Gambia

  Ganges River

  gangrene

  Gangs of New York (film)

  gases

  Gates, Bill and Melinda

  Gates Foundation

  Gaulter, Henry

  geese

  generalist species

  genetics; mutations; pathogen-recognition; selfish gene theory; sexual reproduction and; suicide genes

  George, Rose

  German immigrants

  Germany; cholera; O104:H4 outbreak; urban growth; water systems

  germ theory

  Ghana

  Girard, R
ené

  globalization; surveillance system for disease

  gluten

  gorillas

  Goths

  Grant, Hugh

  Great Britain; cholera; colonialism; Great Stink; measles; Parliament; urban growth

  Great Stink

  Greece; ancient

  Greene, Asa

  Guangzhou

  Guinea

  Gurney, Goldsworthy

  H1N1 flu

  H3N2 virus

  H5N1 virus

  H7N9 virus

  HPAI flu

  habitat destruction

  Haines, Michael

  Haiti; cholera; fecal pollution; HIV/AIDS; tourism

  Hajj pilgrims

  Hamburg

  Hamilton, Alexander

  Hamilton, William

  Hardy, Alister

  Harrison, Benjamin

  Hawthorne, Nathaniel

  HealthMap

  heart disease

  Henry III, King

  hepatitis B

  herd immunity

  highways

  Hindus, hygienic rituals and

  Hippocrates

  Hippocratic Corpus

  Hippocratic medicine; miasmas

  HIV/AIDS; scapegoating

  HLA genes

  Homo erectus

  Homo sapiens

  homosexuality

  Hone, Philip

  Hong Kong

  horizontal gene transfer

  hormones, and immune defenses

  horses

  hot spots, surveillance of

  housing; nineteenth-century boom in; reform; tenements

  Hudson River 68

  humors, four

  Hungarian immigrants

  Huq, Anwar

  Hussein, Saddam

  hydrochloric acid

  hygiene; history of waste removal and

  Iceland

  immigrants; cholera and; Irish; scapegoating

  immortality

  immune behavior

  immune defenses

  Incas

  Independent, The

  India; antibiotic overuse; caste system; cholera; crowds; economy; fecal pollution; hospitals; medical tourism; NDM-1

  Indian Ocean

  Indonesia

  indoor plumbing

  industrialization

  Industrial Revolution

  infectious diseases. See bacteria; pandemics; pathogens; specific diseases; viruses

  Infectious Diseases Society of America

  inflammation

  inflammatory bowel diseases

  influenza; avian; crowds and; H5N1; H1N1; pigs and; scapegoating; type A; type B; type C

  insecticides

  insects, disease carried by. See also specific insects and diseases

  International Sanitary Convention

  International Society of Travel Medicine, GeoSentinel program of

  Iraq

  Ireland

  Irish immigrants; famine refugees; scapegoating

  iron pipes

  iron ships

 

‹ Prev