Dancing Matrix How Science Confronts Emerging Viruses

by HENIG, ROBIN MARANTZ

• ISBN13: 9780679730835
• ISBN10: 0679730834
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-02-01
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

Even as humanity reels beneath the assault of AIDS, epidemiologists are gearing themselves up for the plague's successor. It might be dengue fever, whose carrier, the Asian tiger mosquito, has recently appeared in the United States, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has been transmitted by contaminated human growth hormone. The next pandemic might be caused by any of a dozen viruses that were once confined to other species or territories but now place human beings at risk as we increasingly cross their boundaries. Updated to include the latest research and developments, this fascinating and sometimes unsetting book sums up all that we currently know about viruses: what they are, how they spread, and how scientists are trying to outwit them. Interweaving theory and real-life medical drama, A Dancing Matrix is science reportage at its most suspenseful and informative.

Author Biography

Robin Marantz Henig is a medical journalist whose work appears in many national magazines, including The New York Times Magazine, Woman’s Day, Redbook, and Mademoiselle. Her first book, The Myth of Senility: Misconceptions About the Brain and Aging, won the 1982 Media Award of the American Psychological Association. Ms. Henig lives outside Washington, D.C., with her husband and family.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
PART ONE: THE TINIEST MENACE
Why New Viruses Emerge	3	(34)
Case Study: Why AIDS Emerged	37	(21)
A Virus Primer	58	(27)
PART TWO: NEW THREATS
Mad Cows, Dead Dolphins, and Human Risk	85	(27)
Do Viruses Cause Chronic Disease?	112	(27)
Tropical Punch: The Lethal Arboviruses	139	(23)
The Emergence of a New Flu	162	(21)
PART THREE: FIGHTING BACK
Anticipating the Next AIDS	183	(15)
Viral Domestication	198	(19)
Toward a New Biology	217	(16)
Acknowledgments	233	(2)
Notes	235	(26)
Bibliography	261	(2)
Index	263