By Robert S. Desowitz. 256 pp. New York, W.W. Norton, 1997. $25. ISBN 0-393-04084-4.
The history of our continent is a tale of immigrants, both humanand microbial, arriving from distant shores. Building from hisown vast experience in the field, Professor Desowitz exploresthe origins in our hemisphere of such devastating illnessesas malaria, hookworm disease, and yellow fever. The essenceof this readable study, suitable for tyro and tropical-medicineexpert alike, is that where people go, disease will surely follow,sometimes disease that was previously unknown. In our times,viral killers such as the Ebola and Marburg viruses explodefrom jungle hideouts. Newspaper headlines announce therapy-resistantorganisms, like bubonic plague, discovered in . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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