Outbreak: Disease Detectives at Work

by Mark P. Friedlander Jr.

Book Overview

What happens when a strange new illness affects many people all at once? Epidemiologists - the disease detectives - are called in to investigate the situation. the recent outbreaks of West Nile Virus, avian flu, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) have presented unique challenges to epidemiologists. In all-new sections, this updated edition reveals the efforts involved in identifying and containing the spread of these life-threatening diseases...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822590395
• ISBN13: 9780822590392
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books (CT)
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.2" x 8.7"
• Age Range: 11 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 6 to 9

Customer Reviews

Well written for intended audience

This book is "highly readable" as stated in the editorial review. That means the reader shouldn't expect to look up a lot of hard words. I think it would be terrific for a high school or precocious junior high school student who was interested in medicine and learning more about epidemiology. It has lots of color photographs and the occasional diagram. It's well written. Although this isn't clearly stated in the editorial review, the CIPS data correctly categorizes this title as "Epidemiology -- Juvenile literature."Here's a sample paragraph: A virus is the simplest and smallest of life forms. It is a protein shell enclosed in a core of nucleic acid. (Nucleic acid such as RNA and DNA are the molecules in a cell that carry heriditary information and direct the cell's activity.) There are more than 1,400 known viruses. They have many shapes but most are round, or cylindrical.

Well written for intended audience

This book is "highly readable" as stated in the editorial review. That means the reader shouldn't expect to look up a lot of hard words. It has lots of color photographs and the occasional diagram. It's well written. Although this isn't clearly stated in the editorial review, don't miss the reading level. The CIPS data correctly categorizes this title as "Epidemiology -- Juvenile literature."....