Viruses: The Invisible Enemy, 2nd Edition

Length: 272 pages
Edition: 2
Language: English
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: 2022-01-03
ISBN-10: 0192845039
ISBN-13: 9780192845030
Sales Rank: #2576602 (See Top 100 Books)

For all our hubris, humans can be felled rapidly by an invisible enemy – viruses.

All around us are minute entities that can damage and kill: the millions of viruses that pervade the natural world. Our bodies harbour many that we have long tolerated, but a new one, that jumps into humans from another species, can be lethal – as we have seen most recently with the virus responsible for COVID-19. But what are viruses, how do they cause disease, and how can we fight them?

In Viruses: The Invisible Enemy, a brand new edition of her classic work, virologist Dorothy Crawford explores these questions. She takes the reader on a journey through the past to show how, as the human race evolved from hunter gatherer to farmer to our present urban, industrialised society, viruses have taken advantage of each lifestyle change to promote their own survival.

We have acquired many new viruses along the way, some spreading globally and causing killer diseases. But now, in the 21st century, as humans increasingly encroach into and exploit the natural world, the rate of emergence of novel viruses is accelerating. Already we’ve had a flu pandemic, large epidemics from SARS, Ebola and Zika viruses, and most devastating of all, SARS-CoV-2, which swept around the world in 2020-21, causing the COVID-19 pandemic. The response of scientists has been rapid, producing vaccines in record time. But we can expect more such challenges in the future. This book discusses why and how SARS-CoV-2 and other killer viruses emerged, and how we can win the battle against such an enemy.

Cover page
Halftitle page
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication page
Viruses: Foreword
Preface
Endorsement
Contents
List of Illustrations
    Figures
    Tables
1. The Virosphere
    Viruses are obligate parasites
    Invisible invaders
    Tulipomania
    From miasma to germ theory
    Where did viruses come from?
    Alive or dead?
    How viruses spread
2. The Fightback
    The arms race
    What threats do viruses pose?
3. Emerging Infections
    Viruses unable to spread from person to person
    Viruses that cause sporadic outbreaks
    Emerging viruses that circulate continuously among humans
4. Twenty-First-Century Pandemics
    Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
    Influenza (flu) virus
    Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)
5. Past Emerging Viruses
    Smallpox
    Measles
    Poliomyelitis
    Global virus elimination
    The relevance today of past emerging infections
    Coronaviruses and the common cold
    The future of COVID-19
6. Lifelong Residents
    The herpesvirus family
    Human papilloma virus (HPV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV)
    Immune evasion
    Retroviruses
    Hepatitis viruses
    Virus links to orphan diseases
7. Viruses And Cancer
    The discovery of Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)
    Controlling cell division
    Immunosuppression
    Tumour therapy
8. Turning The Tables
    Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762)
    Edward Jenner
    Louis Pasteur
    Vaccines for all
    Vaccines—victims of their own success?
    Protection against flu
    Subunit vaccines
    Why no HIV-1 vaccine?
    Clinical trials
    Speeding up but not cutting corners
    An evolving target
    Microbial treatments
Epilogue: What The Future Holds
    Human population growth
    International travel
    Emerging virus surveillance
References
Glossary Of Terms
Index
Titles in the Oxford Landmark Science series