San Antonio College Library

From the face mites on our eyelashes to the amoebae that reproduce in our mouths, we all act as hosts to parasites - and we barely give them a second thought. In this program, Michael Mosley infects himself with some of the most powerful and surprising of these organisms to find out how this fascinating relationship works, from the disgusting tapeworm to head lice and leeches. He is carefully monitored over a period of weeks as his parasites get used...

"The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are the most common infections of the world's poor, but few people know about these diseases and why they are so important. This book provides an overview of the NTDs and how they devastate the poor, essentially trapping them in a vicious cycle of extreme poverty by preventing them from working or attaining their full intellectual and cognitive development. The author highlights a new opportunity to control...

"Malaria sickens hundreds of millions of people - and kills one to three million - each year. Despite massive efforts to eradicate the disease, it remains a major public health problem in poorer tropical regions. But malaria has not always been concentrated in tropical areas. How did other regions control malaria and why does the disease still flourish in some parts of the globe?" "From Russia to Bengal to Palm Beach, Randall Packard's far-ranging...

In Parasites, Pathogens, and Progress, Robert McGuire and Philip Coelho integrate biological and economic perspectives into an explanation of the historical development of humanity and the economy, paying particular attention to the American experience, its history and development. In their path-breaking examination of the impact of population growth and parasitic diseases, they contend that interpretations of history that minimize or ignore the physical...

From tapeworms and lice to fungi and down to tiny viruses, we are surrounded by agents of infectious disease which can be caught from other people, animals, and the environment. The variety of such agents is enormous and their methods of infection often ingenious. Some have life cycles that also involve non-human hosts. The discovery of these agents of disease has involved luck and accident as well as dedication, even on occasion to the point of self-experimentation....

Tuberculosis is a complex and ancient disease that, after many years of virtual disappearance in the developed world, is now making something of a comeback. Helen Bynum tracks the historical development of the disease and considers the challenges it presents to the modern world.

"War Epidemics examines the historical occurrence and geographical spread of infectious diseases in association with past wars. It addresses an intrinsically geographical question: how are the spatial dynamics of epidemics influenced by military operations and the directives of war? The term historical geography in the title indicates the authors' primary concern with qualitative analyses of archival source materials over a 150-year time period from...

This work examines the emergence and causes of new diseases all over the world, describing a process called "spillover" where illness originates in wild animals before being passed to humans and discusses the potential for the next huge pandemic. The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and...