Evolution of Infectious Disease - Tapa dura

Of interest to professionals in health science, epidemiology, and evolutionary biology, but also accessible to general readers. (SciTech Book News, June 1994)

I have not picked up a book on infectious disease with so much anticipation as Paul Ewald's Evolution of Infectious Disease since reading William McNeil's Plagues and Peoples more than 15 years ago. I was not disappointed: Ewald's book is as teeming with ideas as some of us are with microbes. Evolution of Infectious Disease is a challenging and readable introduction to current thinking on the topic. (Robin A. Weiss, Nature, Vol. 373, 1994)

very interesting book ... well written book that should be of interest to the educated layperson as well as the evolutionary reasercher and the medical profession. Ewald presents a great deal of grist to chew on providing a lot of documented research on some of his theories and observations. There is a 70-page list of references that would keep any skeptic busy in looking up historical information. For the AIDS researcher, looking into the evolutionary route of the disease should not be overlooked ... recommended for public, academic, and medical libraries. (AIDS Book Review Journal)

... this is a scholarly work, well-referenced, and up-to-date. Ewald has succeeded in producing an interesting and thought-provoking book. (Jonathan Cohen, The Lancet, Dec '94)

Evolution of Infectious Disease is a challenging and readable introduction to current thinking on the topic. As an experimental, laboratory-based virologist, I certainly found it stimulating. (Robin W. Weiss, Nature, Vol. 372, November 1994)

Ewald's book is as teeming with ideas as some of us are with microbes ... a challenging and readable introduction to current thinking on the topic ... I certainly found it stimulating. Ewald has plenty of pithy aphorisms. (Robin A. Weiss, Nature, Vol. 372 1994)

Ewald is the first author to present a Darwinian perspective on infectious disease, which opens up a whole new approach to health science, one that emphasizes new possibilities for combatting deadly diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS.

Taking an evolutionary approach, Ewald views disease-producing bacteria and viruses as parasites and explains the history of disease as a host-parasite relationship, one which can evolve in many different effects on the host population. He explains why the agents of cholera, malaria, and AIDS are so dangerous and why treatment of virtually all diseases would be improved by applications of evolutionary principles.

This merging of evolutionary biology with health sciences offers a new dimension to policy-making in the health sciences by identifying interventions that will force infectious organisms to evolve toward a benign state, to subdue the plagues of the past and help us to avert the plagues of the future.

A wholly readable account of an enthralling and important subject of concern to us all.