20 Books That Will Change The Way You Think About Infectious Disease & Public Health

By Nicole Fisher

These 20 books will entertain, educate, and open up an entirely new world for those without a background in public health or infectious disease. This list is certainly not all-inclusive, and can in no way be ranked. For your sanity, it does not include textbooks or medical literature. The books listed are both enjoyable to read and leave the reader feeling like they know more about the world around them. Many are inspiring, despite the harsh realities and inequalities they present. And all are true stories, as told by those in the fight for better health.

Here are the 20 recommendations for infectious disease and public health books to read while surviving a pandemic: 

1. The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – And How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World — By Steven Johnson
2. Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature’s Most Dangerous Creatures — By Carl Zimmer
3. Mirage Of Health — By Rene Dubos
4. Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service — By Maryn McKenna
5. House On Fire: The Fight To Eradicate Smallpox — By William H. Foege
6. The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History — By John M. Barry
7. Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic — By David Quammen
8. The Spirit Catches You And Then You Fall Down — By Anne Fadiman
9. To Repair The World — By Paul Farmer
10. Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World — By Laura Spinney
11. Guns, Germs & Steel — By Jared Diamond
12. Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World — By CJ Peters and Mark Olshaker
13. The Strategy of Preventive Medicine — By Geoffrey Rose
14. A Planet of Viruses — By Carl Zimmer
15. Mud Creek Medicine: The Life Of Eula Hall and the Fight for Appalachia — By Kiran Bhatraju
16. Polio: An American Story — By David Oshinsky
17. The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind For 500,000 Years — By Sonia Shah 
18. The Fears of the Rich, The Needs of the Poor: My Years at the CDC — By William H. Foege
19. Polio: The Odyssey Of Eradication — By Thomas Abraham
20. Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats — By Maryn McKenna

Original Article Appeared Here.