Spillover (book)

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic is a book written in 2012 by American writer David Quammen.

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
AuthorDavid Quammen
CountryUSA
LanguageEnglish
SubjectEpidemiology, viruses, pandemics
Published2012
PublisherW.W. Norton & Company
Pages592 p
ISBN978-0-393-06680-7
Websitedavidquammen.com/spillover

The book, written in narrative form, tells through the personal experiences of the author - who over the years has had the opportunity to follow in the field and interview dozens of pathologists and virologists all over the world - the evolution of some of the major pathogens that have affected the human species following a species leap (spillover), a natural process by which an animal pathogen evolves and becomes able to infect, reproduce and transmit within the human species, in a process called zoonosis. Quammen's book describes precisely these "leaps" by viral and bacterial strains, analyzing at the same time how much human activities contribute to favoring these "leaps" and how science has faced and continues to face this problem.

Synopsis

In the various chapters of the book, the author dwells on the analysis of a specific pathogen, starting from its discovery and studies on it: the Hendra virus in the first chapter; the Ebola virus in the second; the mathematical study of epidemics at the same time as the spread of malaria in the third; SARS in the fourth; bacterial zoonosis in the fifth chapter (Q fever, psittacosis and Lyme disease); the study of viral transmissibility from animal to man with the case study of herpes B in monkeys and hepadnaviruses from bats in the sixth and seventh chapters; HIV in the eighth chapter and finally some considerations on the evolution of epidemics in relation to the contribution that human activities have in the spread of zoonosis.

Among the human activities, the author identifies some criticisms that increasingly favor the spread of epidemics, including deforestation and the destruction of natural habitats that increase contacts between wild animal species and man, pollution, the overpopulation of some areas that brings millions of people into contact in relatively very confined spaces, the possibility of ever faster and cheaper air travel that favor the possibility of spreading diseases in distant places, and the intensive in contact with billions of animals with the consequent risk of animal epidemics that can be transmitted to humans. All these factors, therefore, in different ways favor the spread of diseases and increase the chances of new future spillovers with pathogens still unknown to the human species but present in nature, just waiting for the right "opportunity" to "make the leap" in humans.

“Spillover” is less public health warning than ecological affirmation: these crossovers force us to uphold “the old Darwinian truth (the darkest of his truths, well known and persistently forgotten) that humanity is a kind of animal” — with a shared fate on the planet. “People and gorillas, horses and duikers and pigs, monkeys and chimps and bats and viruses,” Quammen writes. “We’re all in this together.”

— Breeding Ground, Sonia Shah's review of the book for The New York Times

Viruses and pathogens discussed in the book
  • Hendra virus
  • Ebola virus
  • Malaria parasite connecting to a red blood cell
  • Electron micrograph of SARS coronavirus virion
  • C. burnetii, the Q fever-causing agent
  • Direct fluorescent antibody stain of a mouse brain impression smear showing C. psittaci
  • Borrelia burgdorferi the causative agent of Lyme disease (borreliosis) magnified 400 times
  • TEM micrograph showing Hepatitis B virus virions
  • HIV assembling on the surface of an infected macrophage. The HIV virions have been marked with a green fluorescent tag
  • Electron micrograph of the rod-shaped particles of tobacco mosaic virus

Awards
  • The Science and Society Book Award, given by the National Association of Science Writers (2013)[1]
  • The Society of Biology (UK) Book Award in General Biology (2013)[2]
  • Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (2013)[3]

References
  1. "ScienceWriters2013 Awards Gala celebrates science journalism". National Association of Science Writers.
  2. "2013 Book Awards Winners". Royal Society of Biology.
  3. "ALA AWARDSGRANTS". American Library Association.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.