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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 | |