Review by Choice Review
Drisdelle is not only an experienced parasitologist and scientific author, but a creative genius. Her new book discusses the clinical aspects of parasites, and covers their natural history, their effect on humans, and the outcome of human activity on the parasites themselves. The author's goal is to change the reader's perception of parasites from purely clinical to one that encompasses the total interactions between parasites, environment, hosts, unintended hosts, and humans. The book outlines the life cycles of specific parasites in an informative, but not too detailed, manner. Stories of actual cases of people infected with these organisms are used to illustrate how individuals and society as a whole are affected. Drisdelle challenges the reader to reevaluate how parasites may have had a role in changing human history and possibly affecting individual behaviors. Readers are urged to stop viewing them as "the monsters hiding under our beds" and find the good that has come from these organisms. Her writing style and narrative is so entertaining that one will want to keep turning this book's pages to see what happens next. Summing Up; Highly recommended. General readers, lower-division undergraduates, and two-year technical program students. P. M. Watt formerly, University of Arizona
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Yuck! Gross! Who wants to read a book about creepy parasites? Who wants to think about the fact that we might play host to tapeworms, amoebas, or mites? In this natural and social history of the organisms that can infect humans, parasitologist and author Drisdelle has created an irresitably readable account of how parasites affect us and in turn affect human history. Her first example paves the way for the rest of the narrative: the biblical Jericho was a city founded at a desert oasis. Unfortunately, its reputation as a reliable watering place brought traders from many lands who inadvertently brought the worm that causes schistosomiasis. Generations of people tied to one water source sickened, their strength sapped by the parasite, until the Hebrews invaded, conquered the city with little resistance from its weakened inhabitants, and forbade settlement of the blighted area. For this and other examples, the author provides information about the life cycle of the parasite, about its means of infecting its human host, about the medical results of that infection, and finally about how history was changed with the arrival of the parasite. We learn of Stanley exploring darkest Africa and bringing sleeping sickness in his wake, of how hookworm assisted the Union victory in the Civil War, of the spread of malaria along the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War, and of toxoplasmosis stopping Martina Navratilova from winning the U.S. Open. An infectious read (pun intended)!--Bent, Nancy Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
As Drisdelle, a clinical parasitologist, shows, human parasites come in many forms and use a panoply of strategies to make a living. As she writes, "[H]undreds of species live in human intestines, skin, lungs, muscle, brain, liver, blood, and everywhere else they can find a niche." They can do remarkable damage to every physiological system, leading to death, blindness, and behavioral changes. Drisdelle discusses amoebae, roundworms, tapeworms, mites, and others, often in too much detail. She also examines the historical context in which some parasites have found their way to us and notes their effect on world events, such as the impact Plasmodium falciparum, a protozoa that causes malaria, had on the course of the Vietnam War. She notes that some scholars have even "credited malaria with bringing down the Roman Empire...." On the positive side, she demonstrates that, in some cases, with enough political will, dramatic improvements in public health can be made. This is definitely not a book for the squeamish, and readers who lack a special interest in parasites will find it tedious. 29 b&w photos, 2 maps. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
