Microbes at War – From the Dark Ages to Modern Times – ESKA – Broché – Scolaire/Universitaire

From this highly informative book, rich in historical examples and anecdotes, one realizes that an endless war is still raging between microbes and men. The stories recounted here remind us of the past eras when both, the rich and poor paid heavily for infectious diseases and consequently had a much shorter life expectancy than us. Scores of epidemics have left their mark on world history and often altered its course. Since millions of years, innumerable, ubiquitous, microscopic life forms have lived alongside and at times attacked human, animal and plant life. In the late 1960s, with the advent of efficient methods of diagnosis, development of protective sera and vaccines, therapeutic antibiotics, antivirals, antiparasitics, insecticides, etc., one believed that the war against microbes would fade out or even disappear. However, there was but a short truce. Since then, a good thirty-odd infectious agents have emerged or re-emerged and spread to occupy new geographical niches, for exam