Yellow Fever, Black Goddess: The Coevolution Of People And Plagues (Helix Book) by Christopher Wills

Wills combines a vivid, gripping history of the impact of diseases upon civilization with a sobering survey of current plagues such as AIDS and resurgent tuberculosis. He examines bubonic plague in the Byzantine Empire, which reemerged eight centuries later as Europe's Black Death; dispassionately reviews the unresolved controversy over whether Columbus had syphilis and introduced it to Spain; and follows the devastating course of malaria in West Africa, bejel (a syphilis-like disease) among Middle Eastern Bedouins and such scourges as yellow fever; yaws, an infectious, contagious tropical disease; typhoid; and Ebola. A biology professor at UC-San Diego, Wills maintains that pathogens have helped shape the diversity of complex ecosystems as well as humans' immunological and biochemical diversity. Furthermore, he suggests, some germs have made a "Faustian bargain," an evolutionary compromise, altering their structures to become dependent on the specific behavior of their chosen hosts. This more balanced, less alarmist report deserves a place alongside Laurie Garrett's The Coming Plague and Richard Preston's The Hot Zone. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
Yellow Fever, Black Goddess is interesting and anecdotal. Its highly readable by someone with only the fundamentals of parasitology and epidemiology interested in modern day epidemics. Wills takes the reader through a survey of the world's primary epidemic diseases explaining their origin, morphology, the history of their study and cure. In addition, he addresses some Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) such as syphilis and AIDS. A major thesis is the constant war of adoption taking place genetically between parasites, disease organisms and human beings. At a macro-level, humanity is changing its environment in the name of progress and to eliminate and control diseases. At the micro-level, parasites and diseases are rapidly mutating themselves to find new hosts in this new environment. On occasion, the resulting mutation is lethal to the host and becomes an epidemic (the modern term for plague). Wills style is highly readable including several personal stories to illustrate his points. Reading this book does require at least undergraduate knowledge of biology and genetics. However, the author clearly explains the more complex aspects of the subject. The discussion on cholera is particularly interesting and well done. Wills book does suffer from a lack of coordination and the discussion is uneven. The major sections address the individual diseases and parasites well. However, they are not well organized together as a whole. I imagine there is a connection in the discussion between viral, bacterial, and multicellular parasite contagion, but I failed to fully see the progression. For example, while titillating, I failed to see the connection between syphilis and malaria. Some subject diseases are better covered then others. Also, some diseases are approached in a different fashion from others. This made it difficult to compare and contrast all the diseases discussed in the book. For example, the discussion of cholera is heavily weighted toward morphology and includes personal anecdotes. Willis's discussion of syphilis,. is primarily on the historical origin of the disease. What about a personal anecdote? Yellow Fever, Black Goddess is a good introduction to modern epidemics for the college-level reader. It discusses several organisms found in the world today that can quickly flourish into epidemics or are epidemic. However, the broad theme of the book is not as well handled as the individual plagues.