Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC; Tracking Ebola and the World's Deadliest Viruses

Physicians McCormick and Fisher-Hoch (public health, Univ. of Texas at Brownsville) tell the history of the hunt for the organisms that we now know as the Ebola, HIV, and the Lassa fever viruses. McCormick began his career with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1973; Fisher-Hoch joined the organization in 1985. Their work led them to some of the most remote and inhospitable locations in the world as they searched for origins of disease outbreaks. They present a vivid insiders' view of the mission to track an epidemic to its source, identify and isolate the virus, and determine the mode of transmission. The writing occasionally veers into the technical, but overall the book is entertainingly readable for the layperson. Unfortunately, the material is somewhat out of date; the story ends in 1999 and has not been updated to reflect more recent outbreaks or advances in treatment of AIDS—or that Zaire is no longer the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.