Deadly Outbreaks: How Medical Detectives Save Lives Threatened by Killer Pandemics, Exotic Viruses, and Drug-Resistant Parasites

The book held promise but it was disappointing. The author went on and on and on about the backgrounds of the various epidemiologists and focused on the different medical mysteries they tried to resolve. The author’s style was clunky and it did nothing to make the characters relatable. Similar books about pandemics and medical mysteries are page-turners. This isn’t one of them.

Great book for epidemic fans. Gives backstory of some well publicized epidemics and a few under the radar cases. Provides personnel involvement that describe various jobs available in the field if interested in a career in public health. I read it straight through and was pleased that I spent my time on the book. Learned a few things as well.

Lots of fascinating background on the detective work of modern scientists.I enjoyed the science and was impressed by the amount of sheer work invested in solving these mysterious diseases. The lucky moments, the ultimate success of persistence, the evolution of scientific tools — all these fascinated me. The degree to which pathogen experts see the world through a pathogen lens seemed telling. I was less interested in the background information on individual scientists. I suspect that's exactly the opposite reaction of many readers who will love the humanizing effect of knowing where a scientist went to college, and who they married and a bit about hobbies and children and careers.The narrative voice got stronger as the book progressed, so I encourage the casual reader to press onward if they start to feel overwhelmed early. The occasional use of less common vocabulary and numerous abbreviations may discourage some readers. Do you know what an abattoir is without looking it up? I didn't. For me, that's fun; a new word to learn. To some, it may not be fun and they'll wonder why the author didn't just say "slaughterhouse," which all her readers would know. It doesn't happen often, and didn't really detract. I just noticed it.I absolutely recommend this book for anyone interested in science or disease. I'm sure that, just like me, you'll learn some interesting details about health scares you've heard about, and some you haven't.Kenn Amdahl, author of "Revenge of the Pond Scum: Searching for the causes of Alzheimer's Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's Disease"

The knowledge pool & determination of the people at the CDC and other international, federal, state & local health agencies demonstrates teamwork at its best. These case studies enable mere mortals like me to start to understand how these outbreaks unfold and the mysteries solved.

This is a great book. In this cascade of fear over Ebola, it is reassuring to read of these cases of real people trying to figure out and overcome all sorts of real and potential medical horrors. It is an important example of a government agency actually cognizant of real problems and sending medical detectives on missions to determine solutions. Whoever this Patrick McConnon man is who is cited a number of times from the dedication to the hantavirus search, I'm glad he's on our side. This is a reassuring volume. Kit

This book reads like a novel. It was easy to read. Would recommend.

Very interesting book that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s very approachable for any reader as there is not a lot of medical jargon.

Almost reads like a mystery anthology as it walks the reader through different cases investigated by the CDC EIS officers.

I was looking forward to this as it's just the sort of subject that interests me. But I think it mustn't have been written very well or something as by the second chapter I realised I just wasn't getting drawn in and was avoiding going back to it. I didn't finish it.

I thoroughly enjoy stories about solving medical puzzles. This is a fairly good example of the genre, with seven chapters on threats to public health that have occurred, mostly in the US, within the last forty years or so. Some, such as the emergence of the hantavirus, I had heard about. Others were new to me.I did feel that there was too much medical and scientific jargon for the lay reader. I'm no dummy, and in fact we did have a real life microbiologist in my family, but it certainly wasn't I. Wading through pages of complex medical procedures peppered with acronyms is tedious and unproductive for the average reader at best. Anyway, the most important lesson to be learned from this book is not the acronyms or how to perform scientific tests. The lesson is that, when it comes to matters of public health, complacency is everyone's enemy.

I found the book wasn’t what I was after and found it a a bit difficult to get past that the character was pseudonymed as Fran Fine from Flushing, Queens.Wasn’t a bad book writing style is ok but I didn’t finish it.