The Power of Plagues

Irwin W. Sherman, Professor Emeritus at the University of California (Riverside), is a Visiting Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Diego. His laboratory research centered on the biochemistry of malaria parasites and resulted in more than 150 scholarly papers. Dr. Sherman wrote Twelve Diseases That Changed Our World, also published by ASM Press, and several books that share his expertise in malaria prevention and treatment.

Table of Contents


Preface | vii


1. The Nature of Plagues | 1


2. Plagues, the Price of Being Sedentary | 21


3. Six Plagues of Antiquity | 43


4. An Ancient Plague, the Black Death | 67


5. A 21st Century Plague, AIDS | 91


6. Typhus, a Fever Plague | 113


7. Malaria, Another Fever Plague | 133


8. "King Cholera" | 163


9. Smallpox, the Spotted Plague | 197


10. Preventing Plagues: Immunization | 217


11. The Plague Protectors: Antisepsis to Antibiotics | 265


12. The Great Pox Syphilis | 305


13. The People's Plague: Tuberculosis | 323


14. Leprosy, the Striking Hand of God | 355


15. Six Plagues of Africa | 367


16. Emerging and Re-emerging Plagues | 411


Appendix. Cells and Viruses | 446


Notes | 449


Bibliography