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The coming plague

Laurie Garrett

First published 1994 · 800 pages

A meticulously researched, dread-inducing journey into the invisible wars between humanity and microbes that reads like a prophetic thriller.

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What it feels like

Reading this book feels like watching a slow-motion collision between human hubris and the relentless forces of nature. It is a hefty, deeply immersive experience that balances the meticulous detail of a scientific textbook with the propulsive tension of a medical thriller. The narrative pulls you into the humid jungles and sterile laboratories where epidemiologists hunt invisible killers, wrapping you in an atmosphere of mounting, sobering dread. The prose is authoritative yet highly accessible, translating complex virology and global health policy into gripping human stories. It is perfect for readers who want to be both educated and terrified, offering a profound, lingering realization of our fragile place within the global ecosystem. You will never look at a cough or a crowded room the same way again.

Mood
  • dread-soaked
  • sobering
  • suspenseful
  • gripping
Tone
  • urgent
  • journalistic
  • authoritative
  • cautionary
Pace
steady
Themes
human hubris · ecological interconnectedness · fragility of civilization · unseen threats
The writing
Blends the gripping, character-driven pacing of a thriller with the meticulous, authoritative detail of a scientific journal.
The arc
Begins with a morbid fascination for isolated medical mysteries and builds to a profound, lingering dread about global vulnerability.
Who it's for
Science enthusiasts and medical history buffs who crave rigorous, deeply researched narratives that read like apocalyptic thrillers.
Content notes
  • graphic descriptions of illness
  • medical trauma
  • mass death
  • animal death
  • pandemics

About the book

This is an amazing book that Laura Garrett wrote back in the 90's. For anyone that has read the more popular book by Richard Preston "The Hot Zone" this is a must read. It is a much tighter more informative book. She takes us through the history of viruses in a journalistic/story approach. She breaks down the emergence of Ebola and the other emerging viruses and what it could mean in a brilliantly entertaining way. Each new disease/chapter starts with a journalistic story and ends with an educated informative narrative. With the Ebola outbreak going on now in Western Africa I had to come and revisit this classic. She warned us and nailed it.

Unpurified drinking water, improper use of antibiotics, local warfare, massive refugee migration have contributed to changing social and environmental conditions around the world. These have fostered the spread of new and potentially devastating viruses and diseases: HIV, Lassa, Ebola, and others. The author takes the reader on a fifty-year journey through the world's battles with microbes and examines the worldwide conditions that have culminated in recurrent outbreaks of newly discovered diseases, epidemics of diseases migrating to new areas, and mutated old diseases that are no longer curable.

Description from Open Library.

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