Bird flu has just returned to the headlines of Western newspapers, with new cases and deaths Turkey. This book looks at the sequence of events in 1918 and then at the investigators and investigations to what happened then, and how to prevent the same thing from happening now. The book was written in 1999 so current events are not included, but scientists have been predicting a return of a pandemic flu for years.

The most interesting parts of the book were the first sections on the spread of the 1918 flu, the first search for the virus in tissues of those who died in a mass grave in Alaska, the 1976 flu vaccination fiasco, and the final part of the book looking for more tissue samples. Because Kolata writes for the NY Times, I guess she wanted to show more of the human side of the scientists, but it really did not add much to the understanding of flu.

RELEASE NOTES:

Left next to computer #8 in the internet cafe section in the front part of the Adam and Eve Restaurant.