The viral storm : the dawn of a new pandemic age
(Book)

Virologist Wolfe doesn't want to alarm anybody, but viruses reproduce and evolve faster than any other organism on the planet, definitely faster than mere humans can even hope to control. Even though both mammals and viruses have cohabited for eons, the microscopic critters posed little threat until our prehuman ancestor butchered his own prey and sat down to lunch on its flesh. Then all heck broke loose as prehumans then ate the rabbit, and everything that the rabbit had ever eaten, especially viruses. With ghastly images of bat droppings as pig food and more, Wolfe graphically illustrates how viruses can hitchhike their way from benign passenger to poison, from lone gunman to mass murderer. Luckily he and his international microbiologist cohorts are hot onto ways not only to track viral outbreaks and head them off but also convert them into human helpers vaccines. Though the squeamish may not enjoy this, Wolfe's message is both compelling and timely.--Chavez, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist

Why does the threat of pandemics seem to be growing, as with recent bird and swine flu outbreaks? With the doggedness of a medical detective, Stanford biologist Wolfe attempts in this engrossing and fast-paced chronicle of medical exploration and discovery to uncover how pandemics start, why we are now plagued by them, and what we can do to prevent them. Viruses, Wolfe points out, are ubiquitous and not all harmful; marine viruses, for example, help maintain environmental equilibrium by killing certain bacteria. Wolfe traces how human evolution has made us more vulnerable to dangerous viruses, arguing forcefully that the domestication of animals provided close contact with a small set of animals, allowing their microbes to cross over into humans and spread widely through increasingly settled and sedentary populations. He reiterates that preventing the spread of various microbes is as simple as practicing good hygiene, but he observes that such practices are impossible for much of the developing world. So he and his institute, the Global Viral Foundation, are now developing strategies such as monitoring the butchering of wild game (through which microbes could jump into humans) to better forecast and to prevent large viral outbreaks. 45 b&w illus. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Wolfe (human biology, Stanford Univ.; director, Global Viral Forecasting), a rising authority on global pandemics and one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people for 2011, shares frightening information on how viruses spread and become epidemic. This book can serve as a follow-up to Brad Spellberg's Rising Plague, and, like Spellberg, Wolfe does an admirable job of making highly technical processes both interesting and understandable to the general reader. Starting with the basics of how viruses can jump from animal to human populations, Wolfe goes on to describe the ways that the interconnectedness of modern society makes us particularly vulnerable to these organisms. The final and perhaps most interesting section is Wolfe's analysis of how science and technology can be used to improve our response to these potential dangers. By monitoring human and animal populations in key areas, scientists may be able to predict and even prevent future pandemics. VERDICT Highly recommended for all readers. This important book should be read by anyone wanting to stay informed on how global medical issues affect us all. [See Prepub Alert, 4/11/11.]-Tina Neville, Univ. of South Florida at St. Petersburg Lib. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From a well-traveled virologist, an eloquent argument for why we need better ways to predict and thus prevent major disease outbreaks.Wolfe, the CEO of Global Viral Forecasting, begins by describing the ubiquity of microbes, the most abundant biomass on earth. Viruses in particular can inhabit any cell type, making them the most diverse and flexible of organisms, frequently mutating and able to exchange genes with kin. Our ape ancestors picked up viruses from insect bites and from the animals they hunted, giving them a rich microbial repertoire. That would diminish, not only because the grasslands were less fertile ground, but because the pioneer groups were small. This evolutionary "bottleneck" resulted in the loss of some pathogens (the bugs either killed their hosts or the survivors became immune, leaving no one to infect). The advent of cooking would further reduce the repertoire. But then came animal domestication and farming, upping the repertoire as people in settled communities became targets for new microbe sources. Fast-forward to today's hugely interconnected urbanized world and, you have the ingredients for a pandemic: a worldwide outbreak of disease spread from human to human. That happened with HIV, the result of two monkey viruses that combined in a chimpanzee, which was later eaten by hunters. It hasn't happened yet with bird flu (no human to human spread), but it could. To forestall epidemic disasters, improved surveillance systems are under way, including Wolfe's company, which is using the latest technologies to identify new disease bugs and track cases using rapid communication links. Most importantly, the company is establishing "sentinel" outposts at remote jungle sites where people still consume bushmeat or in other ways may be "the canaries in the coal mine."Wolfe makes clear that most bugs are harmless; some are even helpful. But his wide experience confronting killer diseases in Africa and Asia makes for important, graphic reading and underscores his passion for prevention.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Virologist Wolfe doesn't want to alarm anybody, but viruses reproduce and evolve faster than any other organism on the planet, definitely faster than mere humans can even hope to control. Even though both mammals and viruses have cohabited for eons, the microscopic critters posed little threat until our prehuman ancestor butchered his own prey and sat down to lunch on its flesh. Then all heck broke loose as prehumans then ate the rabbit, and everything that the rabbit had ever eaten, especially viruses. With ghastly images of bat droppings as pig food and more, Wolfe graphically illustrates how viruses can hitchhike their way from benign passenger to poison, from lone gunman to mass murderer. Luckily he and his international microbiologist cohorts are hot onto ways not only to track viral outbreaks and head them off but also convert them into human helpers—vaccines. Though the squeamish may not enjoy this, Wolfe's message is both compelling and timely. Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.

The Lorry I. Lokey Visiting Professor in Human Biology at Stanford and director of Global Viral Forecasting, Wolfe ("the Indiana Jones of virus hunters") can tell us how humans and viruses have coevolved and why we are vulnerable to global pandemic now. Since his work appears regularly in venues ranging from Nature to Wired, I'm betting he can write well, too. A top fall science book.

Why does the threat of pandemics seem to be growing, as with recent bird and swine flu outbreaks? With the doggedness of a medical detective, Stanford biologist Wolfe attempts in this engrossing and fast-paced chronicle of medical exploration and discovery to uncover how pandemics start, why we are now plagued by them, and what we can do to prevent them. Viruses, Wolfe points out, are ubiquitous and not all harmful; marine viruses, for example, help maintain environmental equilibrium by killing certain bacteria. Wolfe traces how human evolution has made us more vulnerable to dangerous viruses, arguing forcefully that the domestication of animals provided close contact with a small set of animals, allowing their microbes to cross over into humans and spread widely through increasingly settled and sedentary populations. He reiterates that preventing the spread of various microbes is as simple as practicing good hygiene, but he observes that such practices are impossible for much of the developing world. So he and his institute, the Global Viral Foundation, are now developing strategies such as monitoring the butchering of wild game (through which microbes could jump into humans) to better forecast and to prevent large viral outbreaks. 45 b&w illus. (Sept.)