Anthrax. Smallpox. Salmonella. E. coli. West Nile Virus. Drug-Resistant Strep. Untreatable Staph. Pandemic Flu. AIDS. MOTHER NATURE, The Most Fearsome Bioterrorist of All...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Andrea Fainbraun
(202) 334-3320
afainbra@nas.edu

New Book Examines Emerging Infections; Calls for Increased Funding, Attention for Long-Neglected Public Health System

The war on germs is being fought on many fronts-from the skirmishes with disease-carrying mosquitoes that cross oceans hidden away in airline wheel wells to the high-profile battle against terrorists wielding deadly bioweapons. Todays bold headlines would have us believe that the biggest threat comes from bioterrorism. But dont underestimate Mother Nature, perhaps the most savage bioterrorist of all. Assisted by the increasing ease with which people-and the germs they carry-move across international borders, shes an effective force to be reckoned with, a key player on this battlefield. As author Madeline Drexler makes clear, wed do best not to ignore her.

Secret Agents looks at todays new and emerging infections-those that have increased in attack rate or geographic range, or threaten to do so-and tells the stories of scientists racing to catch up with invisible adversaries superior in both speed and guile. Each chapter focuses on a different threat: foodborne pathogens, antibiotic resistance, animals and insectborne diseases, pandemic influenza, infectious causes of chronic disease, and bioterrorism, including the latest information on the public health threats posed by anthrax and diseases such as smallpox.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Madeline Drexler is a science and medical journalist based in Boston. A former medical columnist for The Boston Globe Magazine, she was a 1996 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Drexler was also awarded the 1992 International Biomedical Science Journalism Prize by the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Self, Good Housekeeping, The American Prospect, and many other national publications.
-----------------------------

Secret Agents: The Menace of Emerging Infections, by Madeline Drexler    
Joseph Henry Press, ISBN: 0-309-07638-2 Price: $24.95, 300 pages, cloth with jacket, index

The full text of the book can viewed, free of charge, at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10232.html

Joseph Henry Press is an imprint of the National Academy Press, publisher for the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council.