Virus X: Tracking the New Killer Plagues

by Frank Ryan

Book Overview

A renowned authority on diseases, presents a radical theory about the origin of deadly microbes in a book that takes us into the "hot zones" of today's most dangerous viral outbreaks, then into the research labs and hospitals where doctors and scientists are risking their lives trying to control them.
AIDS, Ebola, "mad cow disease," "flesh-eating" viruses...Today's newspapers are full of articles about new plagues and viruses. Where do...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316763063
• ISBN13: 9780316763066
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent read!

This author gives a lot of information about how doctors with NOTHING, battling plagues in the wilds of Africa, are forced to improvise equipment. He discusses what to look for in different diseases in Autopsies, safeguards, etc... He talks about docs performing autopsies outside on the ground, in the dirt, in the rain. He discusses little known facts about projects USAMRIID has been working on (Counters to weaponized Ebola that the Russians have) and other little known facts like that the Ebola outbreak in Reston VA was Spread by Aerosol! It just happened not to be a strain that was easy to catch by humans (Even though lab workers ALL suddenly showed antibodies to Ebola in their blood, and several got "flu like symptoms" from it). I Was always lead to believe that the workers "Coincidently got the flu".. not true, they had a mild case of Ebola! He talks about 1st world close calls, like the little girl returning to Britain on a mail plane with a doctor that was sick from Ebola (The Doc died).. even though she was in close physical contact with him, miraculously, she didn't catch it.. There have been SEVERAL of these close calls in several countries, the USA included. He also discusses how diseases suddenly "pop up out of no where" as Asians and Africans move into more remote regions. They STILL do not know what animal host carries Ebola. Ebola is a HIGHLY mutable disease, which is why the Russians grabbed it for Bio-weapons... He predicts we'll see it many more times in the future. For some reason, Americans think that "maybe a few hundred people have died from Ebola".. this is not true.. there have been several outbreaks in Africa, killing MANY THOUSANDS and forcing troops to quarentine whole cities. ***** Excellent book. A little dated now (Copyright 1997) but the info is solid. What makes it more believable it that the Trends he forecast in 1997 have come true.. like Species jumping viruses, Human/Bird viruses. It's VERY easy to read. He gets technical, but he explains what the technical stuff means in such a way in the stories that before you realize it, you are reading the technical info with full comprehension without realizing that you learned it... Kinda makes you proud of yourself ;) What's more, you begin to anticipate what the Doctors in the stories should do... "Hey, he needs to run an ELIZA test from a Capture Assay! What idiot still uses a primitive fluorescent label? Look for the fixed antibody enzyme and then compare the color change bud!" *****

A frightening report, more pertinent than ever

British science journalist and physician Frank Ryan covers a lot of ground in this extensively researched and engagingly written trek into the world of emerging viruses. These viruses, indigenous to disturbed areas of the world, particularly in the tropics, are now being sprung loose to threaten humankind.The first third of the book covers the story of the "Four Corners" hantavirus that jumped from deer mice to humans with fatal effect in the southwestern United States in 1993. This is science journalism at its best.In the next third of the book Ryan takes us to the jungles of Africa and traces the origin and effect of the horrendously brutal Ebola virus. Again he tells an engaging story with a pictorial vividness. One is amazed at the courage and dedication of the health care workers and medical scientists who risked their lives to treat the sick and dying and to find the source of the deadly disease.At the beginning of the last third of the book, Ryan reprises what we know about HIV, its origins, its spread, the political and social stupidities involved in its spread, and the prospects for combating this terror. Again he makes the personalities and the nature of their work come to life. Then beginning with "Chapter Sixteen: The Aggressive Symbiont," Dr. Ryan discusses in general and theoretically the evolutionary nature of viruses, where they came from, why they exist and what we can expect from them in the future. Most pointedly he explores the possibility of a doomsday virus that is simultaneously as easily spread as influenza and as deadly as Ebola.In a sense this part of the book, originally published in 1996, predicts the SARS outbreak, but does not stop there. Ryan argues persuasively that, because of increased international travel, because of increased disturbance of natural environments, especially equatorial forests, and because of lack of sufficient preparedness, we are in mortal danger from a horrendous pandemic caused by an emerging virus, a virus he dubs "Virus X."Part of his argument comes from the realization that every species on the planet harbors viruses. Most of these viruses exist in the host in a relatively benign manner. Ryan believes that virus and host are in a symbiotic relationship that has developed over the eons. The host shelters the virus while the virus, when shed into the environment, attacks other species with a deadly ferocity that protects the ecological position of the host. He calls this virus the "aggressive symbiont." It is here that Ryan's thesis is somewhat controversial.For my part I think it is better to explain the deadly ferocity of an emerging virus by observing that the virus is killing its new host not to protect the old one but because it has not yet fine tuned its relationship so as not to kill the new host. Also the new host has not yet developed mechanisms for dealing with the virus to prevent it from doing egregious harm. Yet, it is valuable to see the virus as an "aggressive s

Grim, enthralling, and timely

For those of us who are nervous about the current anthrax outbreak, "Virus X" will not make very soothing bedtime reading. Dr. Ryan describes emerging plagues such as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, AIDS, and Junin fever in grim, gory, pathological detail. If that were not enough to keep his readers sleepless, the author spends the last few chapters theorizing on why new and perhaps deadlier plagues may soon emerge. In the final chapter, "Virus X - The Doomsday Scenario," he discusses the (thus far, theoretical) makeup of a virus that could cause the extinction of the human race.Viruses already exist that are uniformly fatal to people, if not treated. Rabies is one of them, but luckily for us it has a rather clunky delivery system:"The human rabies virus lives in a symbiotic cycle with bats, from which it is capable of infecting a wide variety of mammals, particularly foxes, coyotes, jackals, and rodents...The virus is programmed to infect the brain centers in the animal that induce uncontrollable rage, while also replicating in the salivary glands to best spread the contagion through the provoked frenzy of biting."(The bad news is that out of the 5,000+ species of mammals on our planet, a thousand species are bats, and over two thousand species are rodents.)Another almost uniformly fatal virus with a relatively inefficient delivery system is HIV-1.Dr. Ryan asks the question, "Could such lethal agents [HIV-1, Ebola, rabies] ever take the second step, and become sufficiently contagious to infect all or virtually all of the human species?...the only route of contagion likely to prove universally threatening to humanity would be person-to-person spread by the respiratory route." According to Dr. Ryan, Virus X - the (so far theoretical) uniformly lethal virus would have to invade our bodies through the lungs, survive immune system attacks while making its way through the blood stream, occupy its target organs, amplify itself, and then repeat the journey in reverse to infect someone else through a cough or a sneeze.In one of the scariest passages in his book, the author describes a virus, the 'Sin nombre' hantavirus that almost accomplished all of the above steps:"The importance of each step in this concatenation of genesis is illustrated by the 'Sin nombre' epidemic. It was the failure of the hantavirus [on its return journey to the lungs] to cross successfully from the lining of the capillaries to the adjacent air sacs---a distance of mere microns---that prevented a lethal pandemic from originating in the United States in 1993.""Virus X" is a gripping, well-written book by an authority on infectious diseases, and you don't necessarily have to agree with the author's theory of 'the aggressive symbiont' to be enthralled, educated, and frightened. Those men and women in the moon-suits that we see every day now on T.V. are not going to go away, Lord bless them. Let's hope they can find a way to multiply as fast as the newly emerging viruses that Dr. Ryan sees

Excellent book. A definite read.

This was a great book to arouse my curiousity in a new field for me. Dr. Ryan outlines some of the contemporary viruses that are making headlines, such as, Ebola, Hunta, and AIDS. The lethality of these viruses and others will intrigue and frighten you. However, Ryan will also bring viruses into a more down to earth light and explain why we need them as part of the circle of life. Its a detective, medical, and futuristic novel all wrapped up in one. Lastly, having little prior education or interest in this field, I have to give the book credit for not only keeping me interested, but on the edge of my seat. I couldn't put it down.

A very new perspective on emerging viruses.

Recently, several new books have been written on the subject of emerging viruses. They all ask questions about where these viruses are coming from, why they are infecting humans so rapidly, and what we can do to better control or prevent these outbreaks. Several interesting theories have been presented, however Ryan proposes an entirely different perspective of aggressive symbiosis. His theory is extremely sensible as well as a shocking eye-opener about out interactions with nature. If you choose to read this book (and I highly recommend that you do) please try and appreceate the scientific value of it as well as the "Stephen King" side