Virus X

This is an account of how diseases are migrating and developing around the world, and are becoming increasingly hard to track and identify, yet alone cure. It covers mystery killer viruses such as Ebola, as well as the diseases that have threatened mankind from the Black Death to AIDS.

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Viruses are the most basic form of life, manknd is the most subtle and complex, yet viruses are challenging man to defeat their ability to develop, diversify, and destroy. This book attempts to understand the new plagues and how we are countering and containing them, from AIDS to such new plagues as "hantavirus" in the US and the "flesh-eating bug" in Britain. The new plagues raise questions about our deep-seated fears, about our greed and exploitation of the delicate ecology of our planet. Why do plagues appear? Could AIDS or something like it have been predicted? Are we now at risk from even more dangerous epidemics? What can we do about it?