FEAR of 鈥渘ew鈥� diseases has mushroomed into an industry during the long year that it has taken The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World out of Balance (Virago, 拢20, ISBN 1 85490 396 9 to cross the Atlantic. But if the movie Outbreak and similar paperbacks have made you sceptical about hyped warnings of the powers of emerging microbes and superbugs, direct your scepticism elsewhere, anywhere, but not at this book.
Laurie Garrett鈥檚 account of the precarious relationship between humans and microbes is very impressive, authoritative and difficult to put down. It weaves together in almost obsessive detail the stories of scientists and health workers, from Bolivia to Nigeria and Zaire to Geneva, who have investigated, tackled 鈥� and often suffered 鈥� unforeseen infections. These individuals have one thing in common: they know infectious diseases are far from being conquered.
Garrett鈥檚 argument is that humans have yet to understand that their position in the world鈥檚 ecology is complex. Rather than view our relationship to microbes as linear, with humans gradually gaining more and more control, we need to rethink it as 鈥渁 dynamic, nonlinear state of affairs鈥� which can change rapidly after small, and unexpected, shifts. Humans must appreciate the impact of economic development on health and the links between health and environment. It is no accident that microbes tend to exploit the poorest populations in every country first.
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