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Preface | |
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Introduction: our debt to disease | |
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Epidemics select genetic alterations | |
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Every cloud has a silver lining: our debt to disease | |
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Crowding and culling | |
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The message of this book | |
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Where did our diseases come from? | |
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Africa: homeland of mankind and malaria | |
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Many human diseases originated in animals | |
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Are new diseases virulent to start with? | |
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Diseases from rodents | |
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Leprosy is a relatively new disease | |
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What goes around comes around | |
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Transmission, overcrowding, and virulence | |
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Virulence and the spread of disease | |
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Infectious and noninfectious disease | |
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Many diseases become milder with time | |
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Development of genetic resistance to disease | |
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Hunting and gathering | |
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How do microorganisms become dangerous? | |
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Water, sewers, and empires | |
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Introduction: the importance of biology | |
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Irrigation helps agriculture but spreads germs | |
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The class system, water, and infection | |
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The origin of diarrheal diseases | |
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Cholera comes from the Indian subcontinent | |
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Cholera and the water supply | |
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The rise and fall of the Indus Valley civilization | |
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Cities are vulnerable to waterborne diseases | |
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Cholera, typhoid, and cystic fibrosis | |
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How did disease affect the rise of Rome? | |
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How much did malaria contribute to the fall of Rome? | |
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Uncivilized humans and unidentified diseases | |
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Bubonic plague makes an appearance | |
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Meat and vegetables | |
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Eating is hazardous to your health | |
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Hygiene in the home | |
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Cannibalism is hazardous to your health | |
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Mad cow disease in England | |
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The political response | |
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Mad cow disease in humans | |
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Fungal diseases and death in the countryside | |
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Fungal diseases and cereal crops | |
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Religious mania induced by fungi | |
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Catastrophes caused by fungi | |
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Human disease follows malnutrition | |
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Coffee or tea? | |
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Opportunistic fungal pathogens | |
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Friend or enemy | |
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Pestilence and warfare | |
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Who kills more? | |
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Spread of disease by the military | |
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Is it better to besiege or to be besieged? | |
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Disease promotes imperial expansion | |
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Protozoa help keep Africa black | |
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Is bigger really better? | |
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Disease versus enemy action | |
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Typhus, warrior germ of the temperate zone | |
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Jails, workhouses, and concentration camps | |
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Germ warfare | |
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Psychology, cost, and convenience | |
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Anthrax as a biological weapon | |
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Amateurs with biological weapons are rarely effective | |
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Which agents are used in germ warfare? | |
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World War I and II | |
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Germ warfare against rabbits | |
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Germ warfare is unreliable | |
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Genetic engineering of diseases | |
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Venereal disease and sexual behavior | |
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Venereal disease is embarrassing | |
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Promiscuity, propaganda, and perception | |
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The arrival of syphilis in Europe | |
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Relation between venereal and skin infections | |
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AIDS is an atypical venereal disease | |
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Origin of AIDS among African apes and monkeys | |
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Worldwide incidence and spread of AIDS | |
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The Church, morality, and venereal infections | |
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Moral and religious responses to AIDS | |
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Public health and AIDS | |
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Inherited resistance to AIDS | |
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The ancient history of venereal disease | |
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Religion and tradition: health below or heaven above? | |
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Religion and health care | |
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Belief and expectation | |
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Roman religion and epidemics | |
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Infectious disease and early religious practices | |
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Worms and serpents | |
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Sumerians, Egyptians, and ancient Greece | |
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Hygiene and religious purity | |
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Protecting the living from the dead | |
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Diverting evil spirits into animals | |
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Cheaper rituals for the poor | |
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Vampires, werewolves, and garlic | |
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Divine retribution versus individual justice | |
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The rise of Christianity | |
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Coptic Christianity and malaria | |
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Messianic Taoism during the collapse of Han China | |
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Buddhism and smallpox in first-millennium Japan | |
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The European Middle Ages and the Black Death | |
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The Great Plague of London | |
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Loss of Christian faith in industrial Europe | |
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Cleanliness is next to godliness | |
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Manpower and slavery | |
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Legacy of the last Ice Age | |
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The New World before contact | |
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Indigenous American infections | |
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Lack of domesticated animals in America | |
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The first epidemic in the Caribbean | |
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Epidemics sweep the American mainland | |
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The religious implications | |
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Deliberate use of germ warfare | |
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Slavery and African diseases | |
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Exposure of islands to mainland diseases | |
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Cholera and good intentions | |
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The issue of biological isolation | |
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Spotted fevers and rickettsias | |
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The origins of typhus are uncertain | |
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What about the Vikings? | |
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Urbanization and democracy | |
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Cities as population sinks | |
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Viral diseases in the city | |
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Bacterial diseases in the city | |
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The Black Death | |
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Climatic changes: the "Little Ice Age" | |
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The Black Death frees labor in Europe | |
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Death rates and freedom in Europe | |
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The Black Death and religion | |
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The White Plague: tuberculosis | |
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The rise of modern hygiene | |
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The collapse of the European empires | |
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Resistant people? | |
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How clean is too clean? | |
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Where are we now? | |
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Emerging diseases and the future | |
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Pandemics and demographic collapse | |
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The various types of emerging diseases | |
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Changes in knowledge | |
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Changes in the agent of disease | |
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Changes in the human population | |
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Changes in contact between victims and germs | |
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The supposed re-emergence of tuberculosis | |
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Diseases are constantly emerging | |
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How dangerous are novel viruses? | |
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Transmission of emerging viruses | |
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Efficient transmission and genuine threats | |
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The history and future of influenza | |
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The great influenza epidemic of 1918���1919 | |
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Disease and the changing climate | |
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Technology-borne diseases | |
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Emergence of antibiotic resistance | |
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Disease and the food supply | |
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Overpopulation and microbial evolution | |
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Predicting the future | |
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Future emerging diseases | |
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Gloom and doom or a happy ending? | |
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Further reading | |
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Index | |