Beating Back the Devil : On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service

Rating:
Summary: Not a Secret Organization, but Little Known
Review: Many people believe that the next major terrorist attack on the united states will come from some kind of biological weapon. And the organization in the forefront of such problems is the Center for Disease Control, the CDC. Within the CDC the specialty group that goes to the field to perform the initial investigations and report back work for the Epidemic Intelligence Service.

First formed during the Korean War when there were fears of biological weapons, the EIS has been around for 53 years. They are the front line. The list of diseases and incidents they have worked come straight off of the headlines: AIDS, Ebola, the anthrax crisis after 9/11, just recently there was SARS.

This is the first time that a journalize has been welcomed into the relatively unknown organization. Ms. McKenna joined the first class on bioterrorism-response thought by the EIA after 9/11. With unprecedented access, she reports on this not secret, but almost unknown organization, its history, its present and its preparations for an unknown future.

Rating:
Summary: Rather staid look at group who deals with infectious disease
Review: One of the editorial reviews said this book was riveting. There is no doubt that the book is great reading into the EIS, a part of the Center for Disease Control in the United States. This book is especially mandatory reading for those in medicine who are even contemplating working for the CDC. It's good background into the possible postings that these young people are going to see, especially in the post-9/11 world. This will impact not just them, but their families also...these people are exposed as first responders to possible bioterrorism, and will need to get vaccines that the rest of us don't absolutely need. But the possible exposure to anthrax, small pox, and other infectious disease such as the hantavirus means that these vaccines are necessary.

This book just was not the riveting reading that I found in Laurie Garret's books, or the book on the 1918 influenza, or "The Hot Zone" by Preston. The book is well-written, and less melodramatic as some of these books are, and I would not be adverse to recommending this as reading for public health students. It is just not as interesting as these other books mentioned, probably because I read those books first...

Karen Sadler,
Science Education,
University of Pittsburgh

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating...and scary
Review: This book was an interesting and thought provoking quick read. Readers who previously enjoyed books such as The Hot Zone should find this particularly appealing. The book alternates between descriptions of battling real epidemics and describing the people who do this battle. The book leaves the reader feeling grateful to those who do this challenging, tedious, and dangerous work...and also frightened to learn the "real deal" on how epidemics spread. I found the chapter on vaccines to be particularly interesting, and I appreciated the global view of disease, which allows the reader a glimpse into the vast differences in healthcare between the developed and less-developed parts of the world.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling look at unsung heroes of the disease wars
Review: We all love photo al bums, even when the people in the pictures are long dead and unrelated to us. We wonder what was important about the moment, what thoughts were hidden behind awkward expressions.

In "Beating Back the Devil," Atlanta Journal-Constitution science and medical writer Maryn McKenna takes readers deep into the snapshots of the subtitle, "On the Front Lines With the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service."

Through this compelling book, readers not only relive the events that made or still are making history, but they also discover the human back stories. There, unheralded heroes overcome physical, emotional and political obstacles to prevent news from happening. People do not die. Disease does not spread. Byline-hungry reporters disappear, leaving the truly important stories to be told later by those journalists, such as McKenna, who are perceptive enough to see the larger picture and patient enough to wait for it to come into focus.

The devil of the title lurks in dark corners and has many names: polio, West Nile virus, smallpox, listeriosis, AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, drug-resistant staphylococcus and SARS. We humans provide niches for this demon in our urbanization, in our technologies, in our personal behaviors and in our political actions. Old-style wars and genocide create vulnerable refugees living in squalor. Modern terrorist threats stealthily deliver death in the mail, on the winds or through ventilation systems.

This insidious enemy must be fought on his own ground, so the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) sends its troops stealthily into society's underground or visibly into some of the most dangerous settings on Earth. And, thanks to McKenna, readers come along, sharing the fears, the adventures, the triumphs and the disappointments.

People who study nonfiction writing also will appreciate this book for its technique. McKenna views the stories through the eyes of one class of the EIS' two-year training program and places the readers in its midst. She refers to the trainees by first names while identifying other health workers by last names. She also does not hesitate to retain real life's loose ends or ambiguities.

These stories are well-framed and well-composed snapshots, but they are not formal portraits with pleasant but uninteresting backgrounds. They will give readers plenty to pore over for many years and ought to give this book a much longer life than most "timely" nonfiction.


Rating:
Summary: Interesting Subject Written Poorly
Review: Where in the world did the author pick this title!!! The subject matter is so interesting but is hidden by the title. The CDC's EIS officers come alive in some wonderful chapters, but the author uses or misuses English often with dangling participles and obscure uses of "it" with the reader confused about what "it" refers to! Intriguing looks at diseases and how and where they are fought...in more capable hands and with a better title, the book would be a best seller!